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American Retirement Funds at Serious Risk of Being Seized
The Market Oracle ^ | 12/7/2010 | Jeb_Handwerger

Posted on 12/09/2010 9:40:45 AM PST by FromLori

The news of Hungary effectively seizing private pension fund assets to pay for the debt obligations of the state last week should come as yet another reminder of the urgent need to get tax-sheltered retirement savings away from the clutches of the state before it's too late. Hungary is just the latest country to decide that it's citizens retirement savings are the property of the state.

The last major country to use similar tactics was Argentina who confiscated about $3.2 billion of pension savings in 2001 before the country stopped servicing its debt and then nationalized the $24 billion industry two years ago to compensate for falling tax revenue after a 2005 debt restructuring.

On November 24th the Hungarian government gave its citizens an ultimatum: move your private-pension fund assets to the state or lose your state pension. Economy Minister Gyorgy Matolcsy announced the policy, escalating a government drive to bring 3 trillion forint ($14.6 billion) of privately managed pension assets under state control to reduce the budget deficit and public debt. Workers who opt against returning to the state system stand to lose 70 percent of their pension claim.

Americans who think "this can't happen here" may want to think again.

In September of this year the US Treasury investigated the possibility of requiring retirement funds to hold a percentage of government securities in their investment portfolio. That, in effect, would be a nationalization of 401ks and IRAs.

And don't think for a second that the US is in better financial shape than Hungary.

(Excerpt) Read more at marketoracle.co.uk ...


TOPICS: Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: 401k; 401ks; argentina; broke; debt; hungary; iras; kleptocracy; pension; retirement; seized; seizure; tyranny
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To: Conservative Tsunami

By inflating the currency,
they steal your savings.

They’ll do it this way, because as Lenin said, not one man in a million will understand what they’re doing.


21 posted on 12/09/2010 10:14:07 AM PST by MrB (The difference between a (de)humanist and a Satanist is that the latter knows who he's working for.)
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To: DeaconBenjamin

Thanks. They are doing it all over the globe I don’t trust them one bit.


22 posted on 12/09/2010 10:14:16 AM PST by FromLori (FromLori)
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To: MrB

“By inflating the currency,
they steal your savings.”

####

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oMlqn_Hjyi8


23 posted on 12/09/2010 10:17:12 AM PST by EyeGuy (RaceMarxist Obama: The Politics of Vengeance)
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To: FromLori

I did everything the right way..put cash into ira and 401k accounts, paid my taxes, bought and owned my own home. Now, there are people who want to take all of this away...I am close to retirement age, yet there are those that want to raise the age for SS...I paid into it for 35 years, now this group wants to take it away from me...I lived in the same house for 22 years, now this group wants to take that away from me..I saved cash so that I could retire early and live a decent life, now this group wants to take that away from me...this group is made up of 25 to 45 year old people, and of 65 to 90 year old people...they are made up of both liberals and conservatives.......touch my life and you will indeed have a shooting war..


24 posted on 12/09/2010 10:17:21 AM PST by joe fonebone (The House has oversight of the Judiciary...why are the rogue judges not being impeached?)
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To: MrB

How to boil a frog, huh?


25 posted on 12/09/2010 10:18:10 AM PST by billorites (freepo ergo sum)
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To: FromLori

From the book Vampire Economy:

“The totalitarian State will not have an empty
treasury so long as private companies or individuals
still have ample cash or liquid assets.”


26 posted on 12/09/2010 10:19:47 AM PST by PeterPrinciple ( Seeking the truth here folks.)
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To: thethirddegree

“This is the kind of behavior that would get a lot of people moving on D.C. with loaded guns.”

And those would be just the backup weapons.


27 posted on 12/09/2010 10:21:33 AM PST by Da Coyote
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To: MrB
By inflating the currency, they steal your savings.

Yup.

Double the money supply and our savings is reduced by half.

They’ll do it this way, because as Lenin said, not one man in a million will understand what they’re doing.

We do now, don't we? The jig is up. The Ruling Elites are going to have to pull the plug on both the internet and the 2a.

28 posted on 12/09/2010 10:22:01 AM PST by Conservative Tsunami
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To: FromLori

It sure as hell can happen here..................

29 posted on 12/09/2010 10:22:38 AM PST by Red Badger (The House finally fell on Nancy Pelosi..........)
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To: joe fonebone

I feel the same way even about the Social Security we were forced to pay into that and I don’t give a rats azz if the politicians stole it both of us paid in over 40 years each and we want our money back.

To not do so would be outright theft which many on here seem to have no problem with.

Our home is paid for and we have no debts and it’s bad enough that because of the fed’s printing which is devaluing the dollar we are experiencing inflation on every day things we need, i.e., food, gas and getting next to nothing on our savings. The banks are just parking the money and earning far more interest then we are.


30 posted on 12/09/2010 10:27:02 AM PST by FromLori (FromLori)
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To: PeterPrinciple

An Irishman Speaks His Mind

Warning lots of language

Somehow we think the distinguished Irish gentleman will not make it on CNBC: in under two minutes he explains everything there is to know about modern kleptocratic ponzinomics

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/irishman-speaks-his-mind


31 posted on 12/09/2010 10:30:44 AM PST by FromLori (FromLori)
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To: ClearCase_guy

There are other tactics people might employ that would preclude the need for random violence. Let’s just say that if the government is ever prepared to steal from the people, the people can certainly return the favor - or do it first.


32 posted on 12/09/2010 10:34:39 AM PST by andy58-in-nh (America does not need to be organized: it needs to be liberated.)
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To: Peter from Rutland

>>”If they ever tried to seize this stuff I’d simply drain the accounts and take the loss.”<<

Better hurry. There’s about 100 million other Americans who are thinking the same thing. If they decide they want it, they will take it overnight and there ain’t a damn thing you could do about it......except weep.


33 posted on 12/09/2010 10:38:03 AM PST by panaxanax (IMPEACH THE MUSLIM MARXIST....NOW!!!)
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To: cherry

At that point it would not be about getting the money back.

A husband finding his wife’s rapist is not about having her un-raped.


34 posted on 12/09/2010 10:38:18 AM PST by ctdonath2 (+)
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To: andy58-in-nh
if the government is ever prepared to steal from the people ...

Yeah, I'll ... uh ... I'll be on the lookout for that sort of thing.

35 posted on 12/09/2010 10:39:46 AM PST by ClearCase_guy
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To: EyeGuy
Maybe not quite as clear, but the ongoing, trillion dollar, openly racist reparations program originally known as the “War on Poverty”, for one.

Multitrillon and rising. End these useless wars. On Poverty and on drugs. Let people lead their own lives.

36 posted on 12/09/2010 10:40:10 AM PST by Lonesome in Massachussets (Socialists are to economics what circle squarers are to math; undaunted by reason or derision.)
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To: FromLori

They aren’t so stupid as to actually seize it. Here’s what they will do:

1. Mandate a certain percentage be invested in government bonds. This will initially be a fairly low percentage, probably 25%-40%, to avoid too much of an uproar.

2. Simultaneously, the government will absolutely forbid early withdrawals (before 59 1/2, maybe even 65 or the then-current full-benefits age for Social Security), except in case of medical emergency (so that your IRA or 401(k) will pay for a large part of your medical care). There will be an age-based withdrawal schedule that you cannot speed up at all.

3. Simultaneously, you will be mandated to take a minimum percentage of your compensation and put it in either a 401(k), 403(b) or IRA. For those who don’t receive a regular salary check (i.e. business owners who can mess around with payments), there will be mandatory quarterly “contributions.” This will really be nothing more than another tax, and you’ll have only a little more chance of seeing any of this money than you will of seeing your Social Security “investment” being paid off.

4. If you die before your account is drained, half will go to your family, the other half will be forfeit.

5. To make this all palatable (or somewhat so), it’ll probably be done in the immediate aftermath of a combined market crash/financial crisis, and you’ll be “guaranteed” a certain minimum return on your bonds (which will look great in comparison to the wild gyrations in the market). You’ll also be given the option of transferring all of the balance to government bonds, the return on which will also be “guaranteed” (and maybe at a higher rate, to entice people to do it sooner and be enthusiastic about it). Oh, and I believe in my bones that the crash/crisis will be orchestrated for just this purpose (after all, there are many trillions of dollars in retirement funds).

6. A year or two down the line, the mandate will be for 100% investment in government bonds.

Like with guns, we frogs will boil very slowly. Each step will be planned to minimize objections, but our retirement funds will be taken away one salami slice at a time.

As for those above who said, “why do they need this, they can just print money?” - please don’t be naive. First of all, at some point the world is going to demand some actual money be used to pay for our spending, else the dollar will collapse completely and quickly (which wouldn’t be in the interests of TPTB. However, the bigger reason is for the Socialists/Marxists/Fascists to exert control over us. Lose control over your retirement, and you’ve lost control over the vast majority of your liquid funds...and combine that with lack of control over your medical care, hideously high fuel taxes, etc., and you can see how a society of worker drones is being fashioned.

And, yes, this IS grounds for violence, if they decide to try this. It is naked theft, no matter what it is called or how much they smile when they tell you about it. I hope that a lot of people react like those on this thread, maybe that’ll stop the SOBs (or at least cause them some sleepless nights and soiled underwear).


37 posted on 12/09/2010 10:44:34 AM PST by Ancesthntr (Tyrant: "Spartans, lay down your weapons." Free man: "Persian, come and get them!")
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To: Conservative Tsunami

“Double the money supply and our savings is reduced by half.”

In the last two years they printed $100,000,000,000 cash - and it’s all locked in a warehouse.

Contrast: there is about $1.7T cash in existence.


38 posted on 12/09/2010 10:46:59 AM PST by ctdonath2 (+)
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To: ClearCase_guy

LOL. Yeah, I guess they’ve already got their hands in our pockets, don’t they? But taking over our personal retirement accounts? That would be grand larceny on an unprecedented scale, and would deserve an commensurate response.


39 posted on 12/09/2010 10:47:55 AM PST by andy58-in-nh (America does not need to be organized: it needs to be liberated.)
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To: FromLori

They’ll do it like they did healthcare: you keep the package you have, but they change how it is handled behind the scenes. Thus you have no clear cut basis for complaint (same plan, same results, with a few minor tweaks) but they reap the benefits.

You haven’t taken up arms about your health insurance, have you?


40 posted on 12/09/2010 10:51:10 AM PST by ctdonath2 (+)
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