Three Big Piles of Retirement Money That Were "Just Sitting There"

Here in the US, in the last several decades, we have had at least three different instances of where people had huge amounts of money--hundreds of millions and maybe billions---of dollars sitting around. And people being people and business being business, they saw it sitting there and it just killed them. They knew SOMETHING had to be done with it, would be done with it and by gosh, they could get a piece or chunk of it and who would that hurt, after all?

Well, the fact is, it hurt Americans and soon, with all the Baby Boomers about to retire, it's going to hurt America. And it's going to hurt mightily.

Here are three of the most famous pots of money.

Social Security

This is an old story and well-known.

We had all these people, Americans, many of them the biggest generation to ever come along in our nation's history, contributing to this Social Security fund since FDR got it going and what could Congress do but take and spend it? After all, there's more where that came from, right?

Social Security Scam: Where Did the 

$2.5 Trillion Surplus Go?

One Senator, now deceased, God rest his soul, Senator Patrick Moynihan, made a very public, long term attempt at being wise with the fund.  Unfortunately, even before he passed, it died, also.

Heed Senator's Call To Keep Social Security 

Soundless Intact

But rob it they did.  It is a shadow of its former self.

This example is much more recent, however. This goes back to the budget deal this last Fall, in 2015 so they're still robbing that puppy:

Budget Deal Robs $150 Billion 

from Social Security

So the robbing of and from the Social Security fund is still going on, unabated and I don't think most Americans are even aware.

Next up? The 2nd big pile of money that was sitting around?

Pensions.

And actually, it's piles. There were pensions all over this country---public, private, all kinds. And it was just far too tempting to too many people.

Millions of Americans had pensions. They had been funded mostly by business and by the people themselves, contributing to them through their work, their companies.  Once again, it was just far too much temptation for people and businesses to ignore.

Looting the Pension Funds

The Looting of Detroit's Pensions

LIKE CLOCKWORK: Pension plans 

to be looted nationwide

There was all that money sitting there and there was no way these people and businesses could let it sit there and not be skimmed.

Again, what could it hurt, right? There was SO MUCH MONEY.  And it wasn't illegal?  Why not, eh?

And then there's the final big pile of money that was heretofore sitting out there, just waiting to be raided.

Mutual Funds

So people saved for retirement. They squirreled their money away, saving for that retirement "rainy day."

And it created, again, huge piles of money. HUGE.  And all kinds of insurance companies and investment companies had these things. It was supposed to be terrific.

Except with the companies who created them "guarding them", protecting them, holding them for these Americans---their customers---it was the fox being in charge of the chicken coop, so to speak.

The Retirement Savings Drain: Hidden 

& Excessive Costs

Vanguard is quietly draining billions 

from the financial industry

Mutual Fund Fees Will Drain Your Expected Stock Returns

Who's to say what the fees and charges for holding and protecting and investing these funds were going to be?

Why the very companies taking in all the big money, of course.

These 3 are really untold tales of just what has happened in America in the last 50 years or so to retirement savings. Government had no rules, really, for what could or could not be done to or with them so who's to say what could or would happen to them?

And the answer is, in the place of Social Security, Congress was to say---they spent it.

And in the case of pensions, both private and public, and mutual funds, again, no rules so whoever is in control of them could do whatever with them they wanted. After all, with "campaign contributions", they could keep the regulators--read: Congress---from passing any legislation that would put any restraints on them. And to this day there are no real rules on what can and can't, should or shouldn't be done with people's hard-earned and saved retirement funds.

It's great to be rich, isn't it?

So now, all these millions of Baby Boomers are going to retire and they're going to be sitting on and falling back on either not much or nothing at all.

This was decidedly not how this was supposed to play out and it's certainly not good for either these people or, worst, the nation and our nation's short-term future.

God bless America.

In fact, God help us.

Is America turning into a Third World "banana republic"?

Since the 2008 financial near-collapse in America and for the last 30 years, there's been an attack on the middle class in this country:

The Attack on America's Middle Class

7 Things the Middle Class Can’t Afford Anymore

Then, more recently, the UN says Detroit is violating human rights there by cutting off water to the poor:

UN Reps ‘Deeply Disturbed’ That Detroit Is Shutting Off Water To People Who Don’t Pay Their Bills

Now Amnesty International weighs in on the Ferguson, Missouri debacle:

Amnesty International: Ferguson Cops Committed Human Rights Abuses

Take this into consideration:

America Has The Worst Wealth Inequality Of All Developed Nations

What's become of us, America?

What's becoming of us?

And maybe most importantly:

What are we going to do about it?

Something we need more of in the US

There was an interesting article yesterday, at the Reuters news site on a corporate development of late.

The article:

Retooling capitalism for the social good

And here's what's happening, at least in one state:

This week, the state of Delaware, which has made corporate governance its regional cuisine, approved a new form of incorporation, the B-corp, or benefit corporation. These are companies explicitly charged with a dual mission: to earn profits for shareholders, the traditional businessgoal, and also to pursue the social good in other ways, ranging from protecting employees to safeguarding the environment — even if these goals come at the cost of short-term financial gain.

Here's hoping it catches.

And spreads, widely, quickly and wildly.

I could see these being very well invested in, should it spread. People would like that the companies are based on both profit and on doing what's best for the environment and otherwise. With man-made climate change, it becomes more and more obvious and necessary, I think.

Here's hoping.

Vote for a rich guy? And for the rich?

Once again, Garry Trudeau and his "Doonesbury" comic hits the nail squarely (click on picture for larger, easier viewing):

Check out that quote, above. This one:

"You know, it just annoys me that only a few years after the economy was brought to its knees by a gang of predatory Wall Street Plutocrats...that the GOP would nominate a predatory Wall Street plutocrat!"

And that, of course, would be this man:

For pity's sake, whatever you do tomorrow, Tuesday, election day, don't vote Romney.

"Compassionate Conservatism" redux (guest quote)

"Today Mitt Romney is in Ohio, telling anyone who'll listen that his heart bleeds for the unemployed. Apparently "compassionate conservatism" is back -- at least rhetorically. But note that Romney isn't in favor of extending unemployment benefits. He doesn't want to provide food stamps or housing benefits for families that have fallen into poverty.

He doesn't want medical care for these families -- to the contrary, he wants to repeal Obamacare. He doesn't worry that Wall Street financiers -- including his own Bain Capital -- have put so much pressure on companies for short-term profits that they're still laying off workers and reluctant to take on any more. And he doesn't want government to spend money repairing our crumbling infrastructure, rebuilding our schools, or rehiring police and firefighters and teachers.

Romney may care about the unemployed but his policy prescriptions would create more unemployed.

He wants to cut taxes on people like himself -- in the belief that the rich create jobs, and the benefits of such a tax cut trickle down to everyone else.

That isn't true. George W. Bush cut taxes -- mostly for the wealthy -- and we ended up with fewer jobs, lower wages, and an economy that fell off a cliff in 2008."

--Robert Reich, American political economist, professor, author, and political commentator. He served in the administrations of Presidents Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter and was Secretary of Labor under President Bill Clinton from 1993 to 1997.

Fool us once, shame on you. Fool us twice, shame on us.

Links: https://www.facebook.com/RBReich

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Reich

Goldman Sachs: Getting away with grand larceny, lies and lying about it all

It's been widely reported now that Goldman Sachs is, indeed and in fact, getting away with theft--large scale theft, at that:

Goldman Sachs Won't Be Prosecuted In Fraud Probe

A Senate panel found last year that Goldman Sachs marketed four sets of complex mortgage securities to banks and other investors, but failed to tell clients the securities were very risky. The Justice Department said the "burden of proof to bring a criminal case" could not be met.

And while this should surprise no one, however much it dissappoints us, the following has to be acknowleded:

First, Goldman Sachs is in the White House and has been for some years. Timothy Geithner, the Treasury Secretary, comes from there as former CEO, no less, in one of the worst examples and there are plenty of others.

Second, it's an election year and this president--and all candidates for that office--want and need the big Wall Street firms on their side, if not also putting money in their campaign coffers. It seems clear nothing was going to happen here, no matter what the SEC found.

That said, perhaps the people examining this huge firm should go back and read even just some of writer Matt Taibbi's articles and columns over at Rolling Stone. It seems there's enough evidence in them alone to indict the company in general and specific employees of the firm. (See links below).

Forget that Goldman Sachs paid a $550 million fine (that's a little over one-half billion dollars, folks) to the SEC in 2010 for fraud in the subprime mortgage debacle. Forget that. That doesn't really mean they're guilty, right?

As if this all isn't enough to make you cynical, get this, from the New York Times: "News of the settlement sent Goldman’s shares 5 percent higher in after-hours trading, adding far more to the firm’s market value than the amount it will have to pay in the settlement."

So not only did Goldman steal millions of dollars from people and not only did they then also lie about it but when their fine of $550 million dollars was handed out, since it was such a small share of the $13.35 billion profits they made the previous year, their stock actually went up on that news.

They won.

They won big and they keep winning.

Why wouldn't you keep winning when, after all, you virtually--if not actually--own the government?

We have to also forget that the financial collapse that Goldman Sachs and Countrywide Mortgage and Citibank (or Sh*ttybank, as Bill Maher refers to them, rather appropriately) and others nearly brought the nation--and the world, actually--to very near total financial collapse back in 2008 with their lies and theft. Forget that.

The government says we don't have enough to prosecute.

Right.

Got it.

Links: http://www.npr.org/2012/08/10/158547458/business-news

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timothy_Geithner

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-people-vs-goldman-sachs-20110511

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/16/business/16goldman.html

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-great-american-bubble-machine-20100405

Sprint labeled one of the "9 Great American Companies That Will Never Recover"

There's an article out right now, showing the companies that won't likely come back from the 2008 financial crush.

One of them is, as the title says, our own Sprint company is one of them:

"24/7 Wall St. has compiled a list of these companies that won't be making comebacks -- names that you know well, but that will never be leaders again."

What they have to say about them:

Sprint finally posted some reasonably good results recently. However, these could not mask the fact that the No. 3 wireless carrier is too small to ever really compete with AT&T and Verizon Wireless.

Sprint's $35 billion Nextel purchase in 2004 can be seen in retrospect as a key blunder. Their networks ran on different platforms, and integration issues drove customers away from the combined company. Sprint made the MSN "Customer Service Hall of Shame" several times, most recently in 2010. Its customer service has improved significantly since then, but the damage had been done.

Sprint's revenue has fallen from $41.1 billion in 2007 to $33.7 billion last year. It now has about 50 million subscribers to Verizon's 104 million and AT&T's 95 million. As a Morningstar researcher recently noted, "While Sprint has struggled, Verizon Wireless and AT&T have benefited at its expense. Fending off these much larger rivals will be increasingly difficult as data services become more important to the industry."

Not good. Not good at all.

Some of the other companies: Band of America, Dell Computer, Barnes & Noble and The New York Times.

Link: http://www.dailyfinance.com/2012/08/01/9-great-american-companies-that-will-never-recover/?icid=maing-grid7%7Chp-laptop%7Cdl2%7Csec1_lnk3%26pLid%3D188353#photo-6

How bad do banks have to get before we regulate them better?

First there was the 2008 financial, financial implosion of the banks that took place, nearly bringing down not just the nation's but nearly the world's economies, both, simultaneously.

Next we got Countrywide Financial cheating people out of millions or billions of dollars on their home mortgages with president, CEO and owner Angelo Mozilo getting away nearly scot-free.

Next up, we more recently had the Barclays Bank manipulation of the Libor interest rates, to our detriment and their benefit.

Fourth, we very recently--this past week--had Wells Fargo getting fined 175 million dollars for putting the financial screws to Blacks and Hispanics across the country.

Fifth, next, "Visa, MasterCard and major banks agreed to pay retailers at least $6 billion to settle a long-running lawsuit that alleged the card issuers conspired to fix the fees that stores pay to accept credit cards." Sick. We're being used and thrown to the dogs.

Now, we have JP Morgan saying yesterday that they lost not just 2 billion dollars but at least nearly 6 billion dollars--it may climb higher, they said--because they didn't have the proper people and procedures in place to protect their clients, themselves and the nation from this big a fleecing and scandal.

At what point do we recognize that we need to regulate banks better and more thoroughly?

Will it be when they collapse, completely?

Is that what it has to take?

Will we then have learned our lessons?

Do we have to wait that long?

Links: http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/sep/22/morganstanley.goldmansachs

http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1877351_1877350_1877339,00.html

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/banksandfinance/9398723/Barclays-manipulated-Libor-submissions-to-fit-in-with-the-crowd.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/09/elizabeth-magner-new-orleans-wells-fargo_n_1412412.html

http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2012/07/13/jpmorgan-reports-second-quarter-profit-of-5-billion-down-9/

http://www.iwatchnews.org/2012/07/13/9579/visa-mastercard-6b-settlement-over-card-fees?utm_source=iwatchnews&utm_medium=web&utm_campaign=rss

A great way to spend 17 minutes

An education on the 2008 national and international near-total financial and economic collapse due to American bankers and banking and where we are now.

You owe it to yourself--and the nation, your country--to see this documentary: http://www.insidejobmovie.com.au/

Quote of the day

“You have to ask the question: Is capitalism really about the ability of a handful of rich people to manipulate the lives of thousands of people and walk off with the money, or is that in fact a little bit of a flawed system?” --Newt Gingrich. (God, I love irony).

Big, big questions for 2012

They are big, indeed, the questions we can pose now, for this coming new year. So many people are predicting collapses of different kinds. So here goes, some of my questions for 2012: 1) Will Greece's economy collapse? 2) Will Italy follow suit? 3) Spain? 4) Portugal? 5) Will the Euro collapse, in full or part? 6) Will the US financial system face the same or very similar collapse as we did in 2008, yet again? 7) Seriously, many people I've spoken to--friends--have predicted and are predicting--gulp--the collapse of the US. Nice thought, huh? Understand, I'm not predicting any of the above. I've just seen many people predicting these things. Consider it just food for thought. Think happy thoughts, y'all. And happy new year.

KC: No. 10 on List of "The 10 Emptiest Cities"

Man, is that depressing. I really didn't think we'd be on this list. Detroit? Sure, at the top--but they aren't. The Motor City is at number 8. St. Louis? Heck yes (but actually, they're not even on the list). But Kansas City, Missouri? I just didn't think we were that empty. It's from the CNBC news page last evening. They're stats: --Rental vacancy rate: 11%; --Homeowner vacancy rate: 3.7% "Although the Kansas City, Mo., metropolitan area has seen rental vacancy rates drop significantly — from 17.2 percent in the second quarter of 2010 — homeowner vacancies have gone up by nearly 30 percent over the same time. Interestingly, homeowner vacancies were higher in Kansas City prior to the housing crisis, hitting 4.5 percent in the second quarter of 2007." For a bit of schaudenfreude, Indianapolis is at number 2. Forgive me if I should try to make you feel better. Link to original post: http://www.cnbc.com/id/44860467

Here's more of that low-regulation Libertarianism for you

A great example of "self-regulation": former Senator Jon Corzine's MF Global, which collapsed. Now? 1.2 billion dollars are missing and unaccounted for. Understandably, people are upset to the point of angry. (see link below). After the BP oil spill and the 2008 financial collapse that still reverberates today, it's difficult to believe people still want "small government" so companies can regulate themselves. No thank you. We've had far too many examples and reminders of how and why that just doesn't work. Links: http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/12/14/us-mfglobal-regulation-idUSTRE7BD1WE20111214; http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/12/13/us-mfglobal-execs-idUSTRE7BB1XV20111213

The end of the world as we know it?

There is a really disturbing article out today from St. Louis and a CBS affilate station--KMOX--about people seemingly preparing for Armaggedon: Survival Shop Reports Jump In Sales To People Preparing For “Possible Collapse” WEBSTER GROVES, MO (KMOX) - A chain of three stores that sells survival food and gear reports a jump in sales to people who are getting prepared for the “possible collapse” of society. “We had to order fifty cases of the meals ready to eat to keep up with the demand in the past three months,” said manager Steve Dorsey at Uncle Sam’s Safari Outfitters Inc. in Webster Groves. “That’s not normal. Usually we sell 20 to 30 cases in a whole year.” Dorsey says business has been brisk since the spring uprisings in the middle east, as customers share concerns about political uprisings, the world economy and the future of the United States. I mean, yikes. First, gun and ammunition sales SOARED after the first black president of the US was elected and installed in office, now this. Is this really what we've become? Can we not work together to solve our problems or do we have to, instead, resort to assuming it's all going to come crashing down? (Shaking head in disbelief). Link to original post: http://stlouis.cbslocal.com/2011/11/23/survival-shop-reports-jump-in-sales-to-people-preparing-for-possible-collapse/

Quote of the day

"Slavery is the legal fiction that a person is property. Corporate personhood is the legal fiction that property is a person." --From an "Occupy Wall Street" t-shirt.

Richard Cordray better be a bulldog

Word out from Washington this morning says President Obama didn't pick Elizabeth Warren to be head of the new Consumer Financial Protection Agency. And while that's not a big surprise since the business-toady Republicans were so deadset against her, what can be said is that the President's choice for this job, former attorney general of Ohio Richard Cordray had better be her equal. He'd better be, as I said above, a strong bit of a bulldog so something can really be done by this new agency to protect the American public from the kind of nonsense the business community got away with in the last few years since it brought the nation and the world to near-collapse. Here's hoping. Here's what stinks about this: "Her (Ms. Warren's) candidacy was passionately supported by liberal members of Congress and consumer advocacy groups. But she never won the full support of the president or his senior advisers, particularly the Treasury secretary, Timothy F. Geithner, in part because of her independent streak and her outspokenness, which at times put her at odds with the administration." Timothy-freaking-Geithner? Like we care about HIM? He's from the banking industry. He's exactly the kind of person we DON'T want having input on this. It's precisely because Elizabeth Warren was outspoken that she came to prominence, for one, and why, secondly, she would have made a great candidate for the first Director of this agency. Mr. Cordray had better be good, that's all there is to it. Link: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/18/business/former-ohio-attorney-general-picked-to-lead-consumer-agency.html?_r=1&ref=elizabethwarren

3 "Age old truths"

From Joe Scarborough: "The first of these truths is that Washington always wins. Always. The federal government always gets bigger. The second time-tested truth of Washington is that policymakers skew the rules to ensure Wall Street always wins. ... Wall Street stands stronger than ever, three years after bringing America to the brink of financial collapse. The third ugly truth is that the city’s political gears are always greased for war. The most recent Republican administration showed an unnerving propensity for war, and the current Democratic White House has expanded troop levels, increased the Pentagon budget and made larger the percentage of the U.S. economy being spent on weapons systems and hot wars." Link: http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/get_out_of_afghanistan_20110630/

Roller coaster ride ahead?

If this guy knows what he's talking about, we could be in for one wild, financial roller coaster ride:

May 23 2011: Right. Italy. Serious.

Uh-oh--this isn't going anywhere good

It seems leaders in China just keep pushing and pushing for change when it comes to the monetary system of the world, specifically as the US' dollar is the basis for the rest of the world:

China economist blasts dollar dominance on eve of G20

BEIJING (Reuters) – Dollar dominance is sowing the seeds of financial turmoil, and the solution is to promote new reserve currencies, a Chinese government economist said in a paper published on the eve of a G20 meeting about how to reform the global monetary system.

Let there be no doubt, if this goes their way, the Chinese' way, it won't be pretty for us, ladies and gentlemen.


And after that last financial/economic debacle we caused that went global, what with the creation and then selling of what were supposed to be AAA grade securities that ended up being junk and then, on top of that, not punishing anyone for it or fundamentally changing virtually anything in our system so we're sure it never happens again, you can't too much blame 'em, can you?


I hope this party doesn't end while I'm at it.

Link to original story:  http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/us_china_g20_dollar

Quote of the day--on Washington, our representatives and financial reform

From The New York Times Book Review, last Sunday: Politicians in Washington are mesmerized by Wall Street campaign dollars and terrified of being branded 'socialists.' To our peril, I might add. Link to original post: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/27/books/review/Barrett-t.html