Posted on 02/02/2013 7:29:39 PM PST by Perdogg
Via Michael Krieger of Liberty Blitzkrieg blog,
[ZH: We have discussed this threat over the past several years (must read).] The obvious concept is that when the government runs out of money, or they face a drying up in interest for its debt, they will come for the $19.4 trillion in Americans retirement accounts. It seems that day may be finally drawing near.
I stopped contributing to my 401k back when I worked at Bernstein, and I will probably now have to give more serious consideration whether I want to take the penalty and move the funds out of my retirement account entirely. I havent made any decisions, but will be watching closely.
Im sure the government is just trying to protect your retirement account from terrorists.
From Bloomberg:
The U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is weighing whether it should take on a role in helping Americans manage the $19.4 trillion they have put into retirement savings, a move that would be the agencys first foray into consumer investments.
Thats one of the things weve been exploring and are interested in in terms of whether and what authority we have, bureau director Richard Cordray said in an interview. He didnt provide additional details.
The bureaus core concern is that many Americans, notably those from the retiring Baby Boom generation, may fall prey to financial scams, according to three people briefed on the CFPBs deliberations who asked not to be named because the matter is still under discussion.
The Securities and Exchange Commission and the Department of Labor are the main regulators of U.S. retirement savings vehicles and funds. However, the consumer bureau established by the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act sees itself as a potential catalyst for promoting a coherent policy across the government, the people said.
If someone could take the hit- so far as penalties and taxes- and cashed out, where would be a good place to put their money?
If they really want CW-II, they can try that.
Said the government flim-flam man with his government scam.
/johnny
6 months ago, I would have said ammo.... but there isn't any on the open market anymore. My .22LR have appreciated 500% since I bought them.
/johnny
From the article:
“The bureaus core concern is that many Americans, notably those from the retiring Baby Boom generation, may fall prey to financial scams . . .”
I’ve already fallen prey to one financial scam - it’s called Social Security.
By coincidence, it turns out the amount I’ve put in my private retirement account almost exactly matches the amounts contributed by me and my employer in FICA. Yet present projections are that my private account will pay on my retirement almost *twice* what Social Security will - *and* that includes preservation of my principal for my heirs.
The last thing I want is those sharks anywhere near my individual retirement funds.
physical commodities, underground bunker with air filtration, self defense necessities.
Your matress. Also, at least part of it denominated in another currency.
If someone could take the hit- so far as penalties and taxes- and cashed out, where would be a good place to put their money?There's no good place.
Wherever you put it, they'll come after it.
Yeah...ponzi scams like like Social Security....
One option is numismatically significant gold and silver coins.
Just like they protected people who had money parked at MF Global?
Thank God Almighty, safe at last, the government regulators are here to help.
Hot dog. What a great idea.
But but but....
Tell me of a bigger scam than social security. That makes Murdof look like a totally incompetent crook.
“The bureaus core concern is that many Americans, notably those from the retiring Baby Boom generation, may fall prey to financial scams”
http://www.johnspeedie.com/healy/bull.wav
If it's gold, bury it and booby-trap the hell out of it.
Then let the government brownshirts come after it.
I have wondered the same thing myself. I wonder how much gold and silver are worth in areas where mass famine is happening. I think our economy is being crashed intentionally to prove the free market does not work. They think they can control chaos to impose communism/progressive end goals/people’s republic utopia. I think they can crash things, but I don’t think they have the capability to achieve anything. We will be like Zimbabwe if people don’t wise up by the 2014 election.
“We’re the Government, and we’re here to help you.”
I have wondered the same thing myself. I wonder how much gold and silver are worth in areas where mass famine is happening. I think our economy is being crashed intentionally to prove the free market does not work. They think they can control chaos to impose communism/progressive end goals/people’s republic utopia. I think they can crash things, but I don’t think they have the capability to achieve anything. We will be like Zimbabwe if people don’t wise up by the 2014 election.
Cool, sort of like hiring a reformed hacker to be head of cybersecurity. They’re certainly in a position to know about financial scams, but it’s the “reformed” part that worries me.
The first thing a con artist must do before pulling off the con....convince you that he cares about you.
Good land. Land with timber, farming or hunting lease potential. You can live there, farm it, grow veggies, lease it, cut firewood, sell timber or just sit on it until you can sell it once again for the same relative value or greater.
You need the gold to store your wealth until the collapse has stabilized. You need the brass and lead to survive the collapse.
That’s a line.
Thieves are fair game.
Like that ponzi scheme Social Security!?
I hear you and have thought about it. The brass and lead thing I agree with. With gold, I really don’t know. Historically it has been valued, but if we were plunged into 100s of years of “dark ages” would gold be valuable during the dark ages or would barter of useful items be more useful?
Hopefully 2014 gives Barry the Userper a brick wall that he cannot pass and he will be written into history as the worst and most constitutionally damaging presidents ever, but with Woodrow Wilson snorkling his butt.
never saw this coming... oh wait...
Ammonow.com shows average prices and last week’s and month’s. My .223s are coming down finally.
Isn't Cordray one of the recess appointees that the appeals court ruled was invalid? How come this guy is still collecting a paycheck, let alone trying to determine his regulatory power? Does the House have the authority to withhold his salary?
Don’t take the hit, not worth it. These guys are not able to loot your IRA account. Not going to happen.
When there's charts on the internet tracking prices on ammo... It's like silver or gold, except it's useful and fun.
If it keeps going like it is, I'll pay next year's property tax by selling a brick of .22LR.
/johnny
The very same.
And you can keep your gold and regular light bulbs and regular flush toilets and keep the doctor you like.
I don't trust 'em as far as I can throw 'em. That's trillions of $$s sitting there that the government needs.
Roosevelt shouldn't have been able to outlaw possession of gold, either.
But he did, and our corrupt government went along with it.
/johnny
Unaccountable bureaucracies are socialist constructs.
Socialism Is Legal Plunder - Bastiat
BIG GOVERNMENT IS CRONY SOCIALISM
From socialist architect/bureaucratic brianless child to senator...
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/18/cfpb-capital-one_n_1682578.html
As big as anything...well...since OBAMACARE!
The socialists are running the table AND we have ZERO representation in Congress.
“Above all, if you wish to be strong, begin by rooting out every particle of socialism that may have crept into your legislation. “ - Bastiat
Americans are being overtaken/looted/plundered/subjugated by coalitions of collectivists - all socialist.
Thanks for posting, Perdogg. BIG SOCIALISM BUMP!
Thanks to all of the tremendous posters at zero hedge and free republic.
would gold be valuable during the dark ages or would barter of useful items be more useful? <<
http://www.321gold.com/fed/greenspan/1966.html
“Ive already fallen prey to one financial scam - its called Social Security.”
You didn’t fall prey. You were coerced.
Physical Gold and Silver. Some of it in bar form, some in coins. My preference is for Silver.
Precious metals (Gold and Silver) are the way to go, because they are money. The concept of money - and why it always wins out over barter - requires a little unpacking:
Precious metals possess all of the attributes of money (fungibility, portability, store of value and so forth)
Fiat currency has most of the attributes of money, but it does not act as a store of value. After a few years a dollar bill has only a fraction of its original buying power. However an oz of Gold from (e.g.) the time of the Incas retains its buying power.
Something that has the attributes of money is valuable because it has those attributes. Would-be barterers can use money to overcome the otherwise insuperable problem of discovering a Coincidence_of_wants .
Trade requires money. Let's examine this vital function of money with respect to the coincidence of wants, and also get a feel for why Barter rarely works:
Chicken farm example:
You run a chicken farm, and you need to buy a great many things to keep your farm and family going.
In a given month you need - for instance - to buy chicken feed, to hire someone to repair your generator, to buy a nailgun to allow you to mend chicken barn #9, to hire a midwife to help give birth to your widowed daughter’s baby, to buy milk and bacon - and so on.
Some of these resources will be buyable with chickens or eggs. And some of them will not - there's no coincidence of wants if the midwife or the nailgun owner don't want chicken meat or eggs.
Remember: these people need to replace their consumables in order to stay in business: they can't use your food to buy more nails or WD40 or painkillers or whatever they need from their suppliers a hundred miles away.
But all or most of these resources will be buyable with money - with Gold or Silver. This is because offering money as part of a transaction vastly improves the chance of a coincidence of wants
Chicken farm example - continued:
You’ve had a successful month at the farm, and you now have loads of chicken meat and/or eggs to sell.
100 people line up to buy what you’ve got.
* 50 of them have horribly devalued fiat money, food-stamps and a bad attitude
* 40 of them have plans for barter - some of which are better than others.
- and so on, with dozens of variations. You have to gauge each transaction on its own merits - an exhausting process - and half of the barter offers are simply going to be unworkable.
* 10 of them have Gold and/or Silver.
Which customers will you prefer selling your produce to? They all want what you've got - but do you want what they've got? Again: real money vastly increases the chance of a coincidence of wants.
In summary:
Only Gold and Silver fulfill all of the prerequisites of money. This gives them inherent value - useful (for instance) in a survival situation.
Barter (however) turns out not to be a workable solution in the great majority of cases due to the need for a coincidence of wants.
Lastly - as we know: fiat currency can also be used to run a chicken farm. It has the appearance of money. However fiat currency is currently losing ~7% of its buying power a year. Once price inflation reaches a certain level, only real money will be accepted as money.
Hope this was helpful.
“We will be like Zimbabwe if people dont wise up by the 2014 election.”
I think more and more people are beginning to think we won’t be able to vote our way out of the mess we’re in. Take your money out of the 401(k), pay the penalty and buy hard goods... things that will be valuable even if (when) the economy goes into the tank. My wife (a non-drinker) is stockpiling wine. I just bought some tobacco seeds. There are “other” things we don’t talk about too. We have seven people living in this old house and all but the two grandkids (2 and 6 years old) shoot well. I sincerely hope we’re not tested but if we are, I also hope we pass the test.
Unless your wife’s storing high-end collectible wine, they won’t last forever. White wines might start turning 1-2 years after bottling. Reds might start turning bad after 3 years. (I work part-time at a winery.). Your mileage may vary, but just be aware.
They don’t know what authority they have? How vaguely legislated is their mandate? If only we had a left that loved the Constitution.
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau = Coming For Profits, Bub.
It doesn't make any sense if you have real money in it. The object of the game is to pay the least amount of taxes as you can. A working stiff Californian would end up paying close to 50% in taxes and penalties on cashing in a 100K IRA. A high roller would end paying 60% if not more. The way to go would be a 72T distribution.
Gee, the government already 16 trillion in debt and climbing in charge of one’s retirment accounts, what could go wrong??
Bingo! That is the event that set Ann Barnhardt off the hook. She rightly observed that Corzine took money out of the accounts that were not his to take (~$1billion?) and the guy is walking the street and our Fed-Gov is letting him walk.
Then add to that what happened to the bondholders at GM. These bahstids in the Fedzilla will come for the 401k's and retirement accounts sooner or later. They will say they won't and say they won't, and then one day you will here that great sucking sound.
How about a barrel of whiskey? It usually bets better with age and won’t go bad for a loooong time.
This is why they’re coming for the guns first.
You mean scams like Social Security?
Fact is, the government itself is a financial scam!
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