Posted on 07/08/2012 3:15:39 AM PDT by Olog-hai
Britain’s pension system is in meltdown, with retirement payouts slashed 27 percent in just four years.
Experts say the Bank of England’s policy of printing money to ease the country through the recession has destroyed the pensions industry and “impoverished more than a million pensioners”.
And yesterday, in a fresh blow, the Bank’s policy makers agreed to more quantitative easing (QE), pumping an extra £50 billion ($77.4 billion) into the economy and boosting the money supply to £375 billion ($580 billion).
William Hunter, director of Hunter Wealth Management, said: “The economy may need more QE, but pensioners need it like a hole in the head. Unfortunately, given the size of the threat from the eurozone and the problems in the domestic economy, there could be more. It can be hard to get your head around the intricacies of quantitative easing, but all you really need to know is that it puts many pensioners on the breadline. Previous rounds of QE have clearly been ineffective, as we’re back in recession, so there will be question marks over this latest decision. It’s another stab in the dark from an increasingly embattled Bank of England.” …
The UK economy has barely grown for a year and a half and the Bank, which yesterday also held interest rates at the record low of 0.5 percent, warned the weak outlook meant “the margin of economic slack is now likely to be greater”. …
(Excerpt) Read more at express.co.uk ...
Theft, pure and simple.
Long term....unless they suddenly find a method to create a massive wave of jobs....the UK will have to cut everything to the bone (military, infrastructure, education, etc)...to make the pension program survive. If you had to pick the first country to move from an industrial nation to a third-world country...this is it.
This surely bodes well for the US
I think the direct effect in the UK isn't inflation, but lower interest rates, which effect people living off savings. In the U.S. Jim Manzi has said that millions of people are depending on promises that cannot possibly be kept, whether Social Security, government pensions, especially from state and local governments (hello, California teachers), or company pensions. Even returns from equities must decline as more and more people retire, and begin drawing down their savings.
Senior creditors of GM and Chrysler are the canaries in the coal mine. People literally got screwed out of their life savings by the unlawful bankruptcy proceedings that favored unions over creditors, when it was the unions that killed the goose that was laying the golden eggs.
Next in line are people like me who have tried to provide for our retirement. When Social Security runs dry we will get screwed as the Government favors the improvident many over the frugal and thrifty few. I hope Social Security will only account for about 25% of my retirement income, but why should I have to forego that money, when people with the same opportunities and income as me saved not at all. CNN and MSNBC will portray them as hapless elderly, but it will not show the times thirty years prior when they were taking cruises and buying and leasing new cars with borrowed money. Guys who drove Corollas into the ground and took staycations fixing up the house will get screwed to pay for their retirement.
The elderly in the USA are no better off, with Bernanke’s 30% devaluation of the dollar by the Federal Reserve. The difference is that the British press informs its readers about this theft, while the U.S. press hides these unpleasant facts for the government.
When the cost of commodities rises to compensate for the sinking dollar, politicians and the press are “shocked” and demand investigations of rising prices. Someone is “gouging,” of course, and it is the greedy government. Meanwhile, the elderly, who saved for their “golden years,” find their savings earn no interest and food, gas, rent, and insurance are rising. It ibecomes a race between their dwindling resources and the Grim Reaper.
Watch out or Obama will fix this problem the way he fixed health care. /s
But the elite has “diversity” so it is ok.
I agree with this statement, but was there a single lawsuit disputing this outcome? How did 'the government' get away with this 'illegal act' so easily?
Nowhere do I see the mention of actual, real money.
Bankruptcy law gives judges wide latitude, and higher courts refused to overrule the unprecedented settlement in the GM/Chrysler bankruptcies, which was completely outside the clear intention of bankrupcy laws.
Massive bailouts of the banking system, destruction of the middle class, a class of dependents on welfare.
The NWO.
Started in 1946 when they voted out Churchill and chose socialism.
Correction, I think that was in 1945.
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