WALL STREET LEGEND WARNS: A ‘STORM’ IS COMING

The Blaze ^ | 03/01/2013 | Becket Adams

[SeekAndFind]

Screen grab.

Noted hedge fund manager Stan Druckenmiller, 59, on Friday warned that the U.S. economy is headed for a “storm” that could prove to be far worse than the financial meltdown of 2008.

But first, if you’re not familiar with his name, here’s what you need to know: He’s one of the most respected and successful hedge fund managers in the past 30 years.

Obviously, you don’t achieve that type of success (or notoriety) on Wall Street by running your mouth. That being said, if Druckenmiller, a former partner of billionaire liberal philanthropist George Soros, is predicting serious economic trouble for the U.S., perhaps we should listen.

“I see a storm coming, maybe bigger than the storm we had in 2008, 2010. And really, the reason could happen without people looking as for a lot of similar reasons that we could get into,” he said during an interview with Bloomberg TV’s Stephanie Ruhle.

“But the basic story is, the demographic bubble I was looking at way back in ’94 that started in 2011, we are right at the first ramp-up of this thing that is about to hit,” he added.

His comments were made during a larger discussion on the dangers Social Security, Medicare Medicaid, and unfunded liabilities as high as $211 trillion, pose to future generations.

“I think people like me and others need to speak out. It’s about the future, not about the present where the problem is,” he said.

“While everybody is focusing on the here and now, there’s a much, much bigger storm that’s about to hit,” he added. “I am not against seniors. What I am against is current seniors stealing from future seniors.”

Watch the Bloomberg TV interview here.

However, if it’s any consolation, Druckenmiller isn’t totally without hope. Indeed, he actually thinks the U.S. has a chance of turning this ship around.

“With the proper education and with proper voices out there, we could have 40 million kids marching down to Washington,” he said.

–

[M Kehoe]

I thought the death panels in 0bamacare was supposed to fix this problem.

5.56mm

[SeekAndFind]

RE: And by the way, he’s wrong.

Well, don’t stop there now, tell us WHY....

[randita]

Young people are totally oblivious. Stossel sent Kennedy (a reporter) out on the campus of UCLA asking young people what they knew about sequestration. None of them had a clue.

She asked them if they knew the difference between the deficit and the debt. Only one out of dozens did.

She asked if they were concerned that the government was putting them on the hook for trillions of debt they would have to pay for. They said they weren’t concerned, they didn’t really think about it, and it would never happen (their liability to pay it). Denial.

Druckenmiller is sadly mistaken if he thinks young people care for anything other than what’s happening in front of their noses. It’s always been that way. Until they work for a while and have families, they’re in their own little worlds.

[ez]

Three times more? What would $55k put in the bank in, say, 1975 be worth today?

[ez]

Please disregard my last post. I have now completed the thread and agree with your take. The government has stuck it’s big, honking nose everywhere it doesn’t belong and when the SHTF, they are going to be looking for a scapegoat...just like Germany did.

[Tau Food]

We need to find a way to make death a less expensive process. We are spending way too much money pointlessly extending lives that have become meaningless. Death is natural. Death is inevitable. It cannot be avoided by throwing other people's money at the process. When it's time to go, it's time to go. We must let them go - to a better place.

We need to regain our respect for nature and to trust God.

[kabar]

You don't seem to understand how these programs work. They are pay as you go programs, i.e., today's workers pay for today's retirees. Your contributions are not put into individual bank accounts.

Medicare Part A (HI Trust Fund) has been running in the red since 2008. SS has been running in the red since 2010. More money is being spent on benefits than is being taken in revenues. The General Fund must come up with the money to redeem the non-market, interest bearing T-bills in the trust funds so that full benefits can be paid.

[kabar]

We need to find a way to make death a less expensive process. We are spending way too much money pointlessly extending lives that have become meaningless. Death is natural. Death is inevitable. It cannot be avoided by throwing other people's money at the process. When it's time to go, it's time to go. We must let them go - to a better place.

Who are the "we," the government? Who decides what is pointlessly extending lives? Are you a supporter of euthanasia?

I have a clause in my will that says no extraordinary measures should be taken to extend my life. Why can't the individual control his destiny and not the state or the collective "we?"

Who decides when it is "time to go?"

[Tau Food]

They are pay as you go programs,

That's exactly right and I think a lot of people have trouble coming to terms with the full reality of that concept.

It doesn't matter how much has in the past been paid into the system by any particular person because he/she is about to find out about reality: Our system is and always has been "pay as you go" and when you stop paying, it's time to go.

[sauropod]

review

[sauropod]

review

[Tau Food]

I think I answer that in post 69.

I don't believe that government should play any role in our health care system. Medicare, Medicaid, Obamacare are all beyond the Constitutional provisions regarding federal powers.

However, what we are finding out is that the government cannot effectively play a role in our health care system. The system is collapsing and expensive, extraordinary means to unnaturally extend the lives of old people is heading for a dead end (no pun intended). That kind of expensive, wasteful treatment will be reserved for those who can pay for it.

[Reeses]

In 1950 there were 16 workers for every retiree. Now there are 3.3 and by 2050 there will be just two.

Machines already create most of the wealth. In the year 2050 robots will be all over the place.

[Lancey Howard]

The welfare state is unsustainable.

No question about it.

And as soon as welfare, food stamps, WIC, SSDI (a ballooning scam), Section 8 Housing, services for the hordes of illegal aliens and their "anchor babies", "free" this and "free" that for the Democrat party's base of moochers, and all the rest of the government's waste, fraud, and corruption are addressed and eliminated, THEN we can look for savings in programs designed for older retirees who have dumped their money down the government toilet their entire working lives.

I guess we agree.

[Lancey Howard]

Do the calculations adjust (to 2010 dollars) only the raw dollars that were paid in, or do they add the average compounded interest that would have been accumulated on top of those raw dollars had individuals invested the exact same number of dollars in exactly the same way over the course of their working lives themselves?

Here is the study The data, sources, and assumptions are contained in the report. The study aside...

It was an easy enough question. I thought you were familiar with the report?

[kabar]

The system is collapsing and expensive, extraordinary means to unnaturally extend the lives of old people is heading for a dead end (no pun intended). That kind of expensive, wasteful treatment will be reserved for those who can pay for

So who decides when it is time to pull the plug? A government bureaucrat?

[Lancey Howard]

Instead Americans want all the benefits the welfare state can offer, but they don't want to pay the bill. Something has to give.

Okay. Now I have to call you out as maliciously ignorant (unless you are actually a rat troll).

It sounds as if you may have fallen for the false dichotomy propagated by the Democrat "mainstream" newsrooms and their pundits who would have you believe that Americans are confused schizophrenics who want all kinds of government "services" but "don't want to pay for them". It's a con job. A scam. A lie.

The people who constantly demand more "services" and "free stuff" from government are not the hard-working, traditional American families who pay the taxes, and the hard-working, traditional American families who pay the taxes are not the same people who always have their grubby paws out looking for "free stuff". We are talking about two separate and distinct groups of people right there.

One group is the Republican party "base" and the other is the Democrat party "base".

[Tau Food]

So who decides when it is time to pull the plug? A government bureaucrat?

Consistent with your "pay as you go" principle, it will be left up to the individual. If a person wants to pay a ton of money to unnaturally extend his own miserable existence for days, months or a couple of years, then he should be free to do so. As long as the government is not involved in the payment for such wasteful, expensive treatment, it's not my concern.

But, like I said, pay as you go means that when you stop paying, it's time for you to go - hopefully, to a better place.

Do you have a better solution?

[kabar]

In the year 2050 robots will be all over the place.

And so will people. The estimated population of the US will be 440 million. And the number over 65 will be more than twice what it is today. How much will those machines pay into our social welfare system?

[kabar]

I am but you want someone to explain it to you without reading it.

These tables provide estimates of the lifetime value of Social Security and Medicare benefits and taxes for typical workers in different generations at various earning levels. The tables are updated to reflect assumptions and projections in the 2011 OASDI and Medicare Trustees reports. The “lifetime value of taxes” is based upon the value of accumulated taxes, as if those taxes were put into an account that earned a 2 percent real rate of return (that is, 2 percent plus inflation). The “lifetime value of benefits” represents the amount needed in an account (also earning a 2 percent real interest rate) to pay for those benefits. See http://www.urban.org/retirees/Estimating-Social-Security.cfm for more information on assumptions and methodology.