This is expected. Once the bond markets club us, the government will go to the ONLY large pot of cash remaining, which are private retirement accounts.
They will seize those accounts, and replace them with a fixed annuity (i.e., monthly payment when you retire). That way the government gets to hold (i.e., spend) that cash, and it will pay for another 10 years or so of deficits.
The only way out of it is to have the money in hard assets, but even that is difficult, as the best assets are real estate, and that is already (and still) on steroids.
People, it’s either the above, or it’s a huge round of new federal taxes (i.e., no more Bush tax cut, new huge carbon tax, VAT, etc.). The only thing that I’m sure of is that something has to give, because this country is nowhere close to wanting to cut spending.
“Already there is a bill requiring all businesses to automatically enroll their employees in IRA plans in which part of every employee’s paycheck would be automatically deducted and deposited into this account.”
We need a Bill number to heck if this is true.
I remember some years ago this story popped up about some meeting where some woman wanted to confiscate 401K’s and IRA’s but nothing came of it.
To dump out of 401K’s and take the huge tax hit on speculaton is a very risky thing. People need to be sure there is something in the works before making such a move.
So while the Gold Bugs and the rest of our loonie news sources try to drum up fear, the Progressives are not hiding, this is no big secret they tell us exactly what they want to do and will proceed if it takes 20 year to do it just like any Commie Campaign, just look at Castro!
BTW, Investment News is a Weekly Financial Planner type Newspaper with lots of street cred in the Industry, this ain't some blogger in his underpants...
Also read the rest of that thread....
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2959947/posts?page=54#54
bump for later
The article on which this blog is based is TWO YEARS OLD. It was posted on the website of the National Seniors Council. It referred to a hearing TWO YEARS AGO jointly sponsored by Treasury and Labor to look into lifetime income options in 401(k) and defined contribution plans.
However, having said that, I don’t disagree with the headline of the blog. The Obama Administration would like to seize all 401(k)s in the name of giving people a low cost annuity and have Social Security manage everything.
The guy who called this conference, Mark Iwry in Treasury, HATES 401(k)s and all the people called to testify are extreme leftists and Communists who also HATE 401(k)s because it puts retirement ownership and control in the hands of the people. They don’t like that because people who save for retirement get to have a better retirement. They call those people RICH.
But what it’s all about is the most successful people in society being targeted to take away the fruits of their success. It’s PURE EVIL.
Yeah. Because this type of scare article won’t benefit the business which is hosting it. No sireee. No conflict of interest here.
Does anyone seriously doubt that Obama’s spendthrift henchmen (and women) have designs on that great big pot of money protected as 401K’s and IRA’s?
They won’t go for overnight total confiscation but they will come after it.
They will first require all 401’s to offer a Government T-Bill fund as an option.
Then they will move to require a certain percentage be invested in the T-Bill fund.
IRA’s are a little different but you can bet they will do somethng there as well.
Perhaps require a certain percentage be invested in T-Bills once you hit retirement age.
I wouldn’t count on Republicans to prevent this either.
This is a way to channel money into the treasury while still claiming they did not allow taxes to be increased.
“This whole issue is moving forward very quickly,” warns Crone. “Already there is a bill requiring all businesses to automatically enroll their employees in IRA plans in which part of every employee’s paycheck would be automatically deducted and deposited into this account.”
If employers had to enroll all employees in a pension plan, it would come off the top of employees salaries and further depress disposable incomes so much so that many would quit work and go on welfare.
As for forcing individuals with retirement accounts to buy gov treasuries or gov accounts, I think that scenario is still unlikely. This would cause panic withdrawals and would precipitate a financial collapse. Argentina nationalized retirement accounts and their market lost 40%. Argentina is a relatively small economy, so the world markets would not notice. But if this happened in the US, I don’t think there could be any question of a collapse.
… Barack Obama will require you to work. He is going to demand that you shed your cynicism. That you put down your divisions. That you come out of your isolation, that you move out of your comfort zones. That you push yourselves to be better. And that you engage.Barack will never allow you to go back to your lives as usual, uninvolved, uninformed
I have been involved with the issue for over three years at this point and have some background in the substance.
Setting aside the "buy gold" message and focusing only on the threat of confiscation of tax shelter retirement accounts:
If anyone has any real hard information demonstrating that this is a real threat on which either the Administration or Congress intends to take effective action in the near term, I would like to have it. I am in a position where I can probably do something about it and would do so.
At present, my position remains per my post yesterday evening as follows:
"Obama Begins Push for New National Retirement System..401K at risk? Friday, November 16, 2012 8:38:20 PM · 70 of 70
"Congress sent out a letter to the admin about nationalizing retirement: http://www.humanevents.com/2010/05/04/republicans-sound-alarm-on-administration-plan-to-seize-401ks/
That's really ancient news--that is May of 2010. The hearing was in the fall of 2012. My sense of things is that this is a non-issue--this is something the real extreme Left Wing fringe wants to pursue but it doesn't look to me like it is going anywhere. These are just fuzzies bouncing off the wall--even this Administration is probably not going to take on some thing like this.
Just my view--it might be wrong. If you see anything that looks like real current action, let me know and I will look into it. At present, I don't think it is going to happen in the current cycle and lots of other things are on the table as real threats.
Any Republican in congress that signs on to this should be told that it is a red line, and if they cross the aisle, they had just better stay on the Democrat side, because otherwise they are out of a job.
There’s this thing called the House of Representatives.