Free Republic

A gray-haired woman picking a flower with a young girl adorns the cover of an HSBC Holdings Plc (HSBA) brochure that promises investors both “the growth of the market” and “the security of FDIC Insurance.” By tying interest rates to everything from the Dow Jones Industrial Average to precious metals, the pamphlet for HSBC’s Market-Linked Certificates of Deposits explains U.S. investors have the potential to earn “enhanced returns” over as long as seven years. A separate disclosure states that they also may earn zero, getting just their original principal back after the CD matures, while brokers may collect fees of...

[W]HILE Greece has been criticized for just about everything, especially about going on a debt binge, to be fair, that is the kettle calling the pot black. Let’s be honest. ALL Western governments have been doing the same thing. Greece is merely the PRELUDE to the Decline & Fall of Western Society. This is always about politicians and their inability to manage anything whatsoever. It always comes down to their personal self-interests and until we reform our political systems BARRING reelection of ALL politicians to prevent a political class from rising, then politicians will always say: “Vote for me and...

The great myth of the last few decades is that people can establish sustainable savings by investing in other people’s debt. That is how relatively astute and candid writers, such as Jeremy Warner for the Telegraph, can claim that “Britain is still a hugely wealthy nation� and actually mean it. In his latest blog post, Warner tries to convince us that aggregate private debt in Britain is not so bad when we factor in “assets� as well.From his piece:Believe it or not, Britain is still a hugely wealthy nationLast week I drew attention to a report by Royal Bank of...

[T]he number one question pouring in is about the banks and their profit margin. Yes, the bottom line remains that the cost of money declines sharply for depositors while the cost of borrowing rises. Where the value of cash for three years is 0.7% to a depositor, for a fully collateralized borrower, the cost is about 4%. This is a profit margin for the banks of 571%. In other words, when the discount rate was 17% in 1981, this would have been the equivalent of a prime rate at 9707%. The profit margin at banks has NEVER been so high....

Because I know that FReepers are smart and ingenious I am coming to you for assistance and insight in being able to get unplugged from DirecTV. They are raising our rates again. We currently use Netflix, but are also considering adding HuluPlus. Hubby streams from his PS3 in his game room, and in the living room we stream via BlueRay. Hubby and I are trying to get details on unplugging without losing our ability to watch our favorite (cable) show. I've read numerous articles how people are doing this same thing but have not found a step-by-step instruction in what...

$456 million can be cut, commission report says Madison - A report by Gov. Scott Walker's commission to cut waste and fraud in government says Wisconsin can cut or avoid nearly a half-billion dollars a year in government spending. The report lays out a total of $456 million in annual spending that it says can be prevented by making changes at every level of government. Most of that spending - $373 million - is done by the state government with another $83 million by local governments. But not all of that money would necessarily lead to new savings for the...

How the U.S. National Debt Could Drain Your Savings January 9, 2012 By David Zeiler, Associate Editor, Money Morning Now that Congress has allowed the U.S. national debt to grow bigger than the American economy, it won't be long until the American public suffers the consequences by losing most of its savings to inflation.Figures for last year show the national debt officially exceeded 100% of the nation's gross domestic product (GDP). According to government figures, the national debt stood at $15.23 trillion at the close of 2011, compared to a GDP of $15.18 trillion. "The 100% mark means that your...

U.S. Savings Bonds Go PaperlessJanuary 4, 2012 10:30 PM PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — U.S. savings bonds enclosed in birthday cards have been an American tradition for more than 70 years. But from now on, purchasers will have to be computer savvy. As of January 1, the U.S. Treasury declared that all bonds must be purchased online through the website www.treasurydirect.gov. The buyer can download a “gift certificate” indicating the amount of the bond, and for what occasion.

Age: 18 Age started saving: 11 Amount saved: $300,000 Hometown: Princeton, N.J. When I retire, I want to have enough money to live comfortably. There are a lot of other things to save for [right now] since I'm only in my first year of college, so I try to put away the most that I can. I don't have a constant amount that I contribute, but when I'm working I'll try to put in at least $50 a month to my savings account. At this point, I'd say I have a little over $300,000 saved up. My parents encourage me,...

When it comes to retirement, many middle class Americans said 80 is the new 65 and plan to delay retirement because of worries over money, according to a new survey. Wells Fargo bank asked 1,500 Americans who earned between $25,000 and $99,999 and ranged in age from 20 into their 70s questions about retirement, savings and Social Security for its seventh annual retirement survey... On average, Americans have saved only seven percent of their desired retirement nest egg, with a median of $25,000 saved versus a median retirement goal of $350,000..."We did find a bright spot among middle class Americans...

<p>“I think the downturn in the economy occurred in the year 2000,” Paul told CNN, adding that there have been no new jobs since then “and yet we’ve had a 30 million increase in population.”</p> <p>“Just go out and talk to the people – unemployment rate in the true numbers (is) over 20%, so there’s been a depression,” Paul said after an appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”</p>

.... One...key arguments for such a system is that the stock market’s historically high returns would allow the average worker to retire with more money in his pocket than the meager returns the Social Security system now promises (and projections suggest the system may not even deliver on those promises). The underlying reason this works is that the money in personal accounts would be invested in private sector businesses, which would use them to create new wealth. In contrast, Social Security taxes are used to finance current government spending..... [big snip of interesting points] To unpack this a bit, the...

Some of society's most intractable problems come not from its failures but from its successes. Often you can't get a good thing without paying a bad price. A prime example is our public old-age pension system Social Security. It has been completely successful in wiping out poverty among the elderly. Old ladies no longer have to eat cat food to survive. But we pay some prices for this. One is a lower savings rate. China has a humongous savings rate in part because it has no reliable old-age pension system. People have to save if they don't want to starve....

Super-low interest rates haven't done what they usually do after a recession. They haven't ignited economic growth or revived the home market or persuaded consumers to spend freely again. They have, though, caused misery for retirees and others who depend on interest income. Such income plummeted 27 percent from 2008 to last year. Now, some economists worry that low rates might be hurting the economy itself -- defeating the purpose of the Federal Reserve's low-rate policies. When savers earn less, they spend less. And spending by individuals drives about 70 percent of the U.S. economy. Those concerns arise 2 1/2...

Madison—One month after the 2011-13 state budget was signed into law, tangible results from the reforms put in place by Governor Walker and the Legislature are being realized. According to media reports, local units of government and school districts have already saved more than $220 million, with millions more in potential savings not yet reported. The state is also adding jobs. Between December 2007 and December 2010, Wisconsin lost over 153,600 private sector jobs. The state has netted over 39,000 new private sector jobs since the Governor called a special session to open Wisconsin for business. The state has seen...

Yes. You Can.- By: Larry Walker, Jr. -According to Barack Obama, "We can’t simply cut our way to prosperity." Prior historical references: Unknown. Upon hearing such an absurd statement, and being of the homo economicus persuasion, my first instinct is to define what it means to me, and then to determine whether it has any relevance in my life. If we are honest, we must each define what the word prosperity, or rich, means to us. Only after we have defined its meaning are we able to chart a course.In the WikiHow.com article, “How to get rich,” there are seven...

The candidate would know Americans are more worried about their jobs and their savings than abstractions like 'big government.' To win the presidency in 2012, the Republican candidate will require certain strengths. Among them, a credible passion for ideas other than cost-cutting and small government. He or she will have to speak in the voice of Americans who know in their bones the extraordinary character of their democracy, and that voice will have to ring out steadily. That Republican candidate will need, no less, the ability to talk about matters like Medicare and Social Security without terrorizing the electorate. Americans...

Concerned that “short term desires to put food on the table may interfere with the Government’s ability to adequately control the nation’s resources,” legislation that would limit people access to their 401(k) funds has been introduced in Congress. A Bill titled the Savings Enhancement by Alleviating Leakage in 401(k)s Act, otherwise known as the SEAL Act, was jointly introduced by Senators Herb Kohl (D-Wis) and Mike Enzi (R-Wyo). The legislation aims to reduce the number of loans a person can take out using his 401(k) as security. “There is a risk that too many people will put personal needs ahead...

Broken Piggy Bank: 'Leaky' 401(k)s Worry CongressBy ALAN FARNHAM May 20, 2011 Americans in record numbers are raiding their 401(k)s, depleting their retirement savings to compensate for paychecks and mortgage equity lost to the recession. As employers and savings plan providers struggle to stem the outflow of money, two senators have introduced legislation that would make it both harder for employees to dip into company-sponsored retirement savings and easier to repay their borrowings. The SEAL Act (Savings Enhancement by Alleviating leakage in 401(k) Savings) introduced by Sens. Herb Kohl, D-Wis., and Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., would reduce to three the number...

Yet another survey confirms what we already know: Blacks don’t save as much as their white counterparts. According to Prudential’s new study — the African American Financial Experience — 60 percent of African-Americans have less than $50,000 in company retirement plans and only 23 percent have more than $100,000. They’re also three times more likely to raid their 401(k) or other retirement plans to meet immediate financial needs, the study says. Prudential’s findings echo research by Ariel Investments, which looks at middle class blacks. (According to Ariel’s July 2010 study, the median assets blacks have retirement plans is about half...

This should be sent to every American to show them what this President really thinks and that he is anti-capitalist, anti-private-sector and cannot be trusted in telling the truth. ------------------------------- ----- This message has links at the bottom to verify it's content. IBM offered to help reduce Medicare fraud for free... What if I told you that the Chairman and CEO of IBM, Samuel J. Palmisano, approached President Obama and members of his, before the healthcare bill debates, with a plan that would reduce healthcare expenditures by $900 billion? Given the Obama Administration's adamancy that the United States of America...

Forrest Yeager, a 91-year-old resident of this seaside community, had been counting on his retirement savings to last until he died. The odds are moving against him. With short-term bank CDs paying less than 1%, the World War II veteran expects his remaining $45,000 stash to yield just a few hundred dollars this year. So, he's digging deeper into his principal to supplement his $1,500 monthly income from Social Security and a small pension. "It hurts," says Mr. Yeager, who estimates his bank savings will be depleted in about six years at his current rate of withdrawal. "I don't even...

Public employees are retiring at a quickening pace around the U.S., providing a mixed blessing for state and local governments seeking to save money. The retirements mean employers can shelve some planned layoffs. And some of the departing workers, generally more senior and higher paid, are being replaced by lower-paid employees with less-generous retirement benefits, government officials say. But the loss of veterans threatens to erode the quality of public services that make communities attractive, they say. The exodus of public employees is an unintended consequence of states' financial struggles. Some workers have been required to take unpaid furlough days,...

Establish smart spending habits. Live like you're poor. How do you do that? Drive your cars into the ground, don't eat out very much, avoid expensive and potentially unhealthy processed foods, buy food in bulk, buy just enough clothes to fit your needs, and use public transportation. ... Use credit cards only as a convenience to avoid carrying cash; limit your credit card spending so that you can easily pay off the balance each month. Make every dollar count with your spending, so you can free up money to invest in the future. Get healthy. One of the best things...

Virginia state Sen. Emmett Hanger is pushing a measure that would allow for the castration of sex offenders. The controversial proposal passed the Virginia General Assembly four years ago, but then-Governor Tim Kaine vetoed it. The bill would require the state to study the use of physical castration as an alternative to civil commitment for those deemed sexually violent predators. Now, the Commonwealth pays to detain and treat sex offenders after they served their prison sentence. Hanger acknowledged that castration isn't the answer for all offenders, but said studies have shown it to work on many. He said Virginia must...

WASHINGTON – Two of the central promises of President Barack Obama's health care overhaul law are unlikely to be fulfilled, Medicare's independent economic expert told Congress on Wednesday. The landmark legislation probably won't hold costs down, and it won't let everybody keep their current health insurance if they like it, Chief Actuary Richard Foster told the House Budget Committee. His office is responsible for independent long-range cost estimates. Foster's assessment came a day after Obama in his State of the Union message told lawmakers that he's open to improvements in the law, but unwilling to rehash the health care debate...

Disappointing earnings, shrinking revenues and optimism that somehow the economy is improving despite an ongoing housing hangover -- this is what America's biggest banks offered as they released year-end financial results last week. "Last year was a necessary repair and rebuilding year," Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan said Friday. Yes, we know. The shards of our broken economy remain scattered on the ground and we're gluing them back together. What else could Mr. Moynihan say as he announced a 2010 loss of $2.2 billion? "We enter 2011...against a backdrop of an improving economy," he said. But then he qualified:...

Thanks to a generous and wonderful little guy who wants to make his, and our, world a bit better!

Thu, Nov 18 08:43 PM Washington, Nov 18 (IANS) Melinda Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Thursday pledged another $500 million for the world's poor as she hailed a historic moment that will help bring financial services, particularly savings accounts, to hundreds of millions of people living on less than $2 a day. Speaking at the foundation-hosted Global Savings Forum in Seattle, the first global gathering focused on the role of savings in the developing world, Gates urged leaders in government, banking, mobile communications, and international development to work together to build a new kind of financial...

Will the government outlaw your 401(k) plan? It seems like an absurd possibility, yet earlier this month two Democratic senators, Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., held a hearing on Capitol Hill exploring the possibility of doing exactly that. On Oct. 8, the two senators from the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee held a hearing on "Retirement (In)security in America." Among the proposals discussed was "Guaranteed Retirement Accounts," or GRAs. The purpose of the GRA proposal is simple: To force Americans to stop putting their retirement savings money into private 401(k) accounts and send their...

Under the new health care law, consumers using workplace pre-tax health savings accounts will soon need a doctor's note to pay for Tylenol and an estimated 15,000 other over-the-counter drugs. Starting Jan. 1, employees who use flexible spending accounts, health saving accounts, or health reimbursement arrangements to pay for common medications such as pain relievers, cold medicines, antacids and allergy medications will need prescriptions. The new rules will prohibit the use of such debit cards becsuse the IRS says there's no way to prove the drugs are prescribed. The IRS says any money removed from HSA accounts to pay for...

Dear Carrie: I'm 60 and will probably retire between age 66 and 70. I currently have $375,000 in IRA/401(k) funds and I'm adding 8 percent of my income annually. My employer matches a portion. I still have a mortgage of over $165,000 at 4.75 percent. I'm wondering... should I stop my 401(k) contributions and apply that money in extra principal on my mortgage? If I do, I'd pay my house off in about 10 years, making life a lot easier when I retire. But I'd lose the tax advantages as well as the employer match. One idea is to contribute...

Some top Federal Reserve officials have come up with a really bizarre proposal for stimulating the U.S. economy. As unbelievable as it sounds, what they actually propose to do is to purposely raise the rate of inflation so that Americans will stop saving so much money and will start spending wildly again. The idea behind it is that if inflation rises a couple of percentage points, but consumers are only earning half a percent (or less) on their savings accounts, then there will be an incentive for consumers to spend that money as the value of it deteriorates sitting in...

........ "This is the game being played to "pump confidence" in the stock market. The Fed comes in and "POMOs" their so-called MBS "rolloffs", and the money immediately goes into speculation. This drives up equity prices, but it drives down the dollar by more (about 12% since this new "POMO" program began in June) and in turn this is immediately reflected in higher commodity prices." .......

Older households could afford to suffer because they had benefited from previous property price rises, Charles Bean, the deputy governor, suggested. They should "not expect" to live off interest, he added, admitting that low returns were part of a strategy. His remarks are likely to infuriate savers, who are among the biggest victims of the recession. About five million retired people are thought to rely on the interest earned by their nest-eggs. But almost all savings accounts now pay less than inflation. The typical savings rate has fallen from more than 2.8 per cent before the financial crisis to 0.23...

On August 26, the US Department of Labor issued a news release It lists the agenda for the joint hearings being held with the Department of Treasury September 14-15, 2010 on what is euphemistically called “lifetime income options for retirement plans.” The hearings are being conducted by the Labor Department’s Employee Benefits Security Administration. I don’t like speaking in tabloid-style terms, but the unstated agenda of these hearings, as I understand it, is to push for the US government to eventually nationalize (confiscate) all assets in private Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs) and 401K plans! The US government is desperate to...

This is a link to an article on the government claiming a "savings" of $1.6 BN. The savings is based on not spending all of the $14.7 BN they budgeted. Nice theory but if the 2000 Census only cost $4.5 billion then how does spending $13.1 BN constitute a savings?

A bill filed by U.S. senators Jeff Bingaman (D-New Mexico) and John Kerry (D-Mass.) would automatically enroll most U.S. workers in individual retirement accounts if their employers don't sponsor a retirement plan. All automatic IRAs would offer the same three standardized investment options, each to be developed with regulations and fee guidelines issued by the Treasury and Department of Labor. The options would include a "principal preservation fund" (which would include a special Treasury Retirement Bond , the R-Bond, designed for use within an automatic IRA), a "life-cycle" option and an "alternative investment option" that can include a higher concentration...

The 25 statistics below prove that the middle class is being systematically wiped out of existence in America. The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer at a staggering rate. Why? Compared to the rest of the world, American workers are extremely expensive, and the government keeps passing rules, regulations and taxes that make it even more difficult to conduct business here. What has developed is a situation where the people at the top are doing quite well, while the average family barely gets by. Entitlement programs are expanding at unprecedented rates, but it is the people...

While hardly a household name, Dr. Harry Markowitz developed a new way of looking at savings and investment that has fundamentally changed the financial world. In the 1950′s, Markowitz quantified the benefits of diversification in one’s savings. Prior to his work, most investors thought in terms of individual good and bad investments, but Markowitz proved that the best approach is to consider how an overall portfolio performs. Among the many assumptions in the application of Markowitz’s Modern Portfolio Theory is the notion that US Treasury Bills are risk free. With the US assuming far more liabilities than it can likely...

Incomes grew faster than spending in May, making it possible for American households to simultaneously increase savings and support the economic recovery. Gains in payrolls, longer workweeks and rising pay give Americans more confidence and the means to maintain spending in coming months. The Federal Reserve’s decision last week to keep interest rates unchanged may help households weather the fallout from the European debt crisis, unemployment hovering near a 26- year high and tight credit. “The consumer is finally starting to see some positive wage gains as the job market starts to improve,” said Omair Sharif, an economist at RBS...

The Life Legal Defense Foundation has filed a lawsuit against the City of Birmingham and several Birmingham police officers for the outrageous civil rights violations perpetrated against nine young people who were unlawfully arrested in February last year. The team of pro-life activists spent more than 14 hours in jail for simply holding signs and handing out literature on a public sidewalk in front of a local high school. The lawsuit, filed in conjunction with local attorney Phillip Jauregui, seeks redress for the unlawful actions of Birmingham police officers in prohibiting peaceful free speech activity on the public sidewalk adjacent...

America has a “waiting problem.”Think about the time you spend waiting in traffic jams… at the doctor/dentist’s office… at restaurants… at the gas station.And how about the six months of your life spent waiting at traffic lights? Or the five years you’ll spend just waiting in lines at retail stores, the post office, DMV, etc. (Early buyers of Apple’s products likely spend far more.)And according to Robert Poole, Director of Transportation Policy at the Reason Foundation, the average air traveler now spends two to three hours waiting at the airport. Granted, much of that is due to more rigorous security...

Are the Feds Trying to Nationalize Your Retirement Savings? Share Post Print May 9, 2010 Posted by John at 7:15 PM For some time, there have been rumblings that the federal government might try to solve its budgetary problems by nationalizing (i.e., stealing) the money that millions of Americans have set aside for retirement in 401(k) plans and the like. One way they might do this is to confiscate the cash on hand in exchange for a promise to make future payments in the form of an "annuity." An involuntary annuity, in that scenario. I haven't taken this speculation too...

White House Budget Director Peter Orszag is arguing that the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) underestimates the savings from President Barack Obama's healthcare bill. CBO, the independent agency Orszag ran before he joined the Obama administration, said the legislation will reduce deficits $143 billion in its first decade and by even more -- roughly 0.25 percent to 0.5 percent of gross domestic product -- in its second decade. That would probably amount to more than $1 trillion in savings, but Orszag considers that a lowball estimate.

While nearly all of the Republican lawmakers in Lansing have been generically very eager to proclaim their desire to cut the cost of state government — and for reductions in the cost of the state workforce in particular — some have been voting down the Secretary of State's effort to actually implement a specific plan to do so — when it impacts their interests...

Finally, someone is speaking up on a theme we've been promoting for a long while - one of the many "arbitrages" currently going on in the US. In this case, throwing America's savers under the bus, so that (a) any 4-year-old may run a bank successfully simply by turning on the light in the morning [Apr 20, 2009: How Banks will "Outearn" their Losses] and (b) so that debtors may benefit. What is sad to see is the potential for the desperate American saver - who has been hit by multiple Federal Reserve induced bubbles - being set up to...

HSAs - before ObamaCare – allowed individuals to put aside money to pay for qualified medical expenses – including over-the-counter (OTC) medications – on a tax free basis. Frequently, companies match or at least contribute to an employee’s HSA. (Unlike FSAs, you are able to keep the money year to year and even invest the money!) This benefit has changed.

The picture below is worth a thousand words. And $50 trillion. Financial Assets held by households - Chart (Unable to post chart - please see link at end) This was just released by the Bank of Japan as part of their new "flow of funds" reporting. Basically, it outlines the composition of Japanese household assets versus counterpart households in America. The major point of note is the discrepancy in savings versus equity investments. Recently, there has been speculation that Japan is not saving as much as it used to. This is a critical issue for the Japanese economy. Japan is...

From a fact sheet on Obama's campaign website (PDF link): Obama’s plan will save a typical family up to $2,500 on premiums by bringing the health care system into the 21st century: cutting waste, improving technology, expanding coverage to all Americans, and paying for some high-cost cases. However, the CBO just produced this analysis of the senate health care bill (another PDF link) which concludes that the Senate health care bill will raise the average family's health care premiums by $2,300. Even Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., is admitting that health care preminums aren't about to go down just because health...