Free Republic

When I was a kid, it was a big deal when the postman came around. He was an important man carrying important documents from far away lands that we could only dream about… and each time he pulled up there was a brief glimmer of anxiety, wondering what unexpected surprise he might be delivering that day. At the time, I remember postage stamps for first class mail costing about 20 cents. If you’re a bit older than me, you might remember them being much cheaper than that. In fact, prior to President Nixon taking the US dollar off the gold...

How the US Government Will Seize Your Retirement Account By Simon BlackMay 12, 2011 Following in the footsteps of a rather ignominious list of nations like Argentina and Hungary, the government of lreland is set to take its 'fair share' of private retirement funds. Drowning in debt and faced with unpopular, unrealistic, ridiculously unpopular austerity measures, the government has announced that it will now tax private pension savings in order to raise 470 million euros (roughly $675 million) per year... a lot of money in a country of only 4.4 million people. Somehow, the government expects to be able to...

Newsmax Watch Out! Feds Could Seize Your Private Retirement Savings Saturday, May 21, 2011 04:58 PM By: Greg Brown How long before Uncle Sam hits private pensions to balance the public budget? It’s quickly becoming a reasonable question to ask. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner is ringing alarm bells across Washington, D.C., warning of a disastrous outcome if an agreement to raise the debt ceiling is not made soon. “A default would call into question, for the first time, the full faith and credit of the U.S. Pensions, Federal Government, Debt Ceiling, Retirementgovernment,” Geithner wrote in a letter Friday to Sen....

The news of Hungary effectively seizing private pension fund assets to pay for the debt obligations of the state last week should come as yet another reminder of the urgent need to get tax-sheltered retirement savings away from the clutches of the state before it's too late. Hungary is just the latest country to decide that it's citizens retirement savings are the property of the state. The last major country to use similar tactics was Argentina who confiscated about $3.2 billion of pension savings in 2001 before the country stopped servicing its debt and then nationalized the $24 billion industry...

Jeff Bingaman (D NM) plans to require employers to set up automatic IRAs for their employees — who would be required to "opt out" if they don't want to participate Snip which targets businesses with 10 or more full-time employees that don't already offer a 401(k) or other qualified retirement program Snip Under Bingaman's plan, prompted by the Obama administration, employees would be automatically enrolled in an Individual Retirement Account, with at least 3 percent of their wages going into it. They could opt out. Their employer would get a tax break equal to the cost of administering the program.

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...

DES MOINES, Iowa — Retirement accounts already battered by a steep market decline may get hit again as several companies suspend or reduce their 401(k) match to save cash. Workers at General Motors Corp. and Frontier Airlines Holdings Inc., for example, could potentially lose thousands of dollars in company contributions from their retirement accounts. GM, which recently announced it was suspending company matches for its 32,000 eligible salaried workers, said Nov. 3 its U.S. auto sales plunged 45 percent as it struggles along with competitors to survive the credit crisis and financial market turmoil. "People know these actions are necessary...

RALEIGH — Democrats in the U.S. House have been conducting hearings on proposals to confiscate workers’ personal retirement accounts — including 401(k)s and IRAs — and convert them to accounts managed by the Social Security Administration. Triggered by the financial crisis the past two months, the hearings reportedly were meant to stem losses incurred by many workers and retirees whose 401(k) and IRA balances have been shrinking rapidly. The testimony of Teresa Ghilarducci, professor of economic policy analysis at the New School for Social Research in New York, in hearings Oct. 7 drew the most attention and criticism. Testifying for...

I am requesting if anyone out there in FReeperdom has information / testimonials (positive or neagative) on the ethics, business practices, professional conduct, overall behavior of its representatives. Need to advise a WWII Generation member on whether or not these folks can be trusted and be able to back it up with facts.

U.S. to allow tax break on retirement accountsBy David Cay Johnston The New York Times MONDAY, MAY 15, 2006 President George W. Bush is scheduled this week to sign into law an extraordinary deal for people with retirement savings accounts. By paying $1 in income taxes before they come due, these investors can ultimately avoid taxes today that are conservatively worth $3.50. Those who cannot afford to take advantage of this deal may think about it differently, however, since the $2.50 of net tax savings is, like all of the Bush tax cuts, being financed with more government debt, which...

At his press conference last Thursday, President Bush added a new “progressive indexing” proposal to his Social Security reform plan that not only largely resolves the program’s imminent insolvency without raising payroll taxes, but also exposes an almost unconscionable hypocrisy in the Democrats’ position on this issue. At odds for months in this debate has been how future payments to recipients are calculated. Currently, increases are tied to annual wage gains of the workforce. However, it has been argued that if they were indexed to the growth of inflation, or “prices” -- which have typically been much lower than changes...

http://personal.fidelity.com/myfidelity/daily/index.shtml Legislative Outlook: Reforms May Let You Save More A Look at What's Ahead in Washington for 2004 Published: January 02, 2004 By Doug Fisher, senior vice president of Fidelity Government Relations Later this month, President Bush will present the State of the Union and follow with a budget highlighting his priorities for 2004. Among his possible agenda items are simplified savings laws allowing taxpayers to put aside more tax-free savings to pay for retirement, health care, education, and even home purchases. The president unveiled these concepts in last year's budget, but he and Congress focused instead on cutting the...