Posted on 01/31/2015 6:43:09 AM PST by SeekAndFind
Let’s take a brief walk into financial reality for a moment.
At the time of this writing, the United States government’s official debt is nearly $18.1 trillion.
Now, let’s look at who the biggest owners of that debt are:
1) Taxpayers of the United States.
If you’ve held a job in the Land of the Free, 15.3% of your salary has gone to fund Social Security and Medicare.
Each of these programs holds massive trust funds that are supposed to pay out beneficiaries, both present and future.
Conveniently, the trust funds are required by law to buy US government debt.
And given that every single US taxpayer is an ultimate beneficiary of these trust funds, that ranks the people of the United States as among the biggest holders of US debt.
How sustainable is this? Not very.
The 2014 trustee reports for both Medicare and Social Security indicate that nearly ALL of the trust funds are sliding towards insolvency.
This isn’t some wild conjecture. The people in government who manage these trust funds are flat out telling us that they’re about to go bankrupt.
Let that sink in for a bit… then ask yourself: how long can two insolvent programs continue to be among the largest owners of US government debt?
2) The Federal Reserve
Now that we know Social Security and Medicare cannot continue to buy Treasuries indefinitely, we turn our attention to the Fed, which as of today, holds over $2.4 trillion in US government debt.
The Fed is essentially the lender of first resort to the US government and has singlehandedly managed to mop up the vast majority of government debt over the last several years.
Problem is, the Fed has to print money to do this. And the Fed has created so much money over the last few years that it’s now borderline insolvent.
The Fed’s capital now stands at just 1.27% of its total assets. To be clear, this is a razor thin margin of safety.
No other central bank in the world (except Canada, curiously) would be able to post such a pitiful number and still pretend to be credible.
But make no mistake, there is a level of monetary expansion that’s too far. And the Fed is already getting close to this danger zone.
Bottom line, the Fed is not going to be in a position to write blank checks to the US government indefinitely without becoming insolvent and causing an epic currency crisis.
And when that happens, where else can Uncle Sam go? Who else will buy his debt?
Simple. You.
More specifically, your retirement account.
According to Internal Revenue Service estimates, there’s close to $5 trillion in individual retirement accounts in the Land of the Free.
This is money that taxpayers prudently set aside for retirement, hopefully cognizant that Social Security isn’t going to be there for them.
Devoid of any other easy lender, $5 trillion is far too irresistible for such a heavily indebted government to ignore.
I’ve long warned that the government could easily nationalize a portion of all IRAs.
It would be so simple for them to do– just a single executive order and a couple of phone calls.
They’ll probably wait for some market crash, and then sell it to Americans like this:
“For your own protection, we will henceforth require banks to invest your retirement savings in the safety and the security of US government bonds.”
These bonds, of course, are so safe that they fail to pay an interest rate that even keeps up with inflation, effectively guaranteeing that you’re going to lose money.
It started happening last year.
In his 2014 State of the Union address, President Obama announced his MyRA program.
MyRA is basically an IRA that invests directly in… you guessed it… government bonds.
He pitched it as an easy for Americans to save for retirement “with no risk of losing what you put in”.
Step two came when both the President and Treasury Secretary embarked on a blitzkrieg-style marketing campaign to pump the program, pledging that they would aggressively push businesses to sign up their employees.
Now comes step three.
Find out more in today’s podcast where we talk about the obvious, looming threats to your retirement security, and the structures you can build to do something about it.
If you have an IRA, you need to know this.
I’ve also put together a free report about safeguarding your IRA; it’s a scaled down version of a premium report that I sent to our Sovereign Man: Confidential members recently, but it contains a lot of valuable information.
You can download it here:
https://s3.amazonaws.com/sm-cdn/blackpapers/IRA+Report-free.pdf
Gun registration = delayed consfiscation
IRA nationalization = same result
I don’t totally disagree. But I do suspect it would be easier for the US government to nationalize foreign investments in this country. Our country can withstand a war with foreign countries over their US assets. I’m not sure anyone really thinks our country can handle the unrest of nationalize everyone’s IRA or 401K. I think eventually they might take IRA’s etc.... but it will be after the war over foreign held assets.
If you chose to fight it, the government will deny you health insurance, Social Security, tax deductions (both Federal and State), and will target you for surveillance, harassment, and arrest.
By virtue of your tax return each year, they know exactly what you have.
Put your trust in Christ alone. All else will burn.
I do.
Most Americans will do what they have been doing for years as Obama has grown increasingly tyrannical - nothing.
There will be no mass civil disobedience. There will be no skirmishes. Instead, the people will board the box cars.
However, if the government decided they were going to seize foreign held assets, like buildings, property etc.... and if they decided they were going to focus on Saudi, Kuwaiti, Iraqi, Iran, Cutter, Pakistan, Lybian, Syrian, etc etc .... these foreign held assets.... well, who would be opposed to that? A very small number of people?
Republicans Sound Alarm on Administration Plan to Seize 401(k)s
In February, the White House released its “Annual Report on the Middle Class” containing new regulations favored by Big Labor including a bailout of critically underfunded union pension plans through “retirement security” options.
The radical solution most favored by Big Labor is the seizure of private 401(k) plans for government disbursement — which lets them off the hook for their collapsing retirement scheme. And, of course, the Obama administration is eager to accommodate their buddies.
House Republican Leader John Boehner (Ohio) and a group of House Republicans are mounting an effort to fight back.
Now the backdoor bulls-eye is on your 401(k) plan and the trillions of dollars the government would control through seizure, regulation and federal disbursement of mandatory retirement accounts.
Boehner and the group are sounding the alarm, warning bureaucrats to keep their hands off of America’s private retirement plans.
The entirety of the House GOP Savings Recovery Group letter outling the issue that was sent last night to the Labor and Treasury secretaries:
The Honorable Hilda L. Solis
Secretary
U.S. Department of Labor
200 Constitution Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20210
The Honorable Timothy Geithner
Secretary
U.S. Department of the Treasury
1500 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20210
Dear Secretaries Solis and Geithner:
As members of the Republican Savings Solutions Group, we write today to express our strong opposition to any proposal to eliminate or federalize private-sector defined contribution pension plans, such as 401(k)s, or impose burdensome new requirements upon the businesses, large and small, who choose to offer these plans to their employees.
In the Annual Report of the White House Task Force on the Middle Class, Vice President Biden discussed at length the creation of so-called “Guaranteed Retirement Accounts, (GRAs)” which would provide for protection from “inflation and market risk” and potentially “guarantee a specified real return above the rate of inflation” — presumably at taxpayer expense. In the Report, the Vice President recommended “further study of these issues.”
The Vice President’s comments are troubling, insofar as they come on the heels of testimony before Congress from supporters of GRAs proposing to eliminate the favorable tax treatment currently afforded to 401(k) plans, and instead use those dollars to fund government-invested GRAs into which all employees would be required to contribute a portion of their salary — again, with a government subsidy. These advocates would, essentially, dismantle the present private-sector 401(k) system, replacing it instead with a government-run investment plan, the size and scope of which remain to be seen. This despite data showing that 90 percent of households have a favorable opinion of the existing 401(k)/IRA system.
In light of these facts, we write today to express our opposition in the strongest terms to any effort to “nationalize” the private 401(k) system, or any proposal that would dismantle or disfavor the private 401(k) system in favor of a government-run retirement security regime.
Similarly, and more recently, the Departments of Labor and Treasury have jointly issued a “Request for Information” regarding the “annuitization” of 401(k) plans through “Lifetime Income Options.” While we appreciate the Departments’ seeking guidance and information from all parties and stakeholders in advance of regulatory activity, we strongly urge that the Departments not proceed with any regulation in this area before they have carefully and thoroughly considered all of the information received.
More specifically, we urge that the Departments take no action to mandate that plan sponsors — often, small businesses — include a “lifetime income” or “annuitization” option if they choose to offer a 401(k) plan to their employees, or that beneficiaries take some or all of their retirement savings in such an option. Data shows that 70 percent of Americans oppose the concept of a mandated annuity or government payout of their 401(k) plan. On a more fundamental level, Congress should not be in the business of choosing “winners” and “losers” among retirement security stakeholders. Instead, we urge the Departments to make it easier for employers to include retirement income solutions in their savings plans and to help workers learn more about the value of their retirement savings as a source of retirement income. Finally, to the extent new mandates and bureaucratic red tape from Washington push small employers out of the business of offering these plans to their employees, we would submit such an effort weakens, rather than strengthens retirement security.
We appreciate your consideration of our views in these important matters and stand ready to work with you and the Administration to promote secure and adequate retirement savings for all Americans.
Sincerely,
House Republican Leader John Boehner (R-OH)
Rep. John Kline (R-MN)
Rep. Dave Camp (R-MI)
Rep. Sam Johnson (R-TX)
Rep. Dean Heller (R-NV)
Rep. Brett Guthrie (R-KY)
Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN)
Rep. Pat Tiberi (R-OH)
Rep. Bob Latta (R-OH)
Rep. Erik Paulsen (R-MN)
Rep. Lynn Jenkins (R-KS)
Rep. Ed Royce (R-CA)
Rep. Buck McKeon (R-CA)
http://humanevents.com/2010/05/04/republicans-sound-alarm-on-administration-plan-to-seize-401ks/
It's way easier to just raise taxes on withdrawals from these. To lower the age for mandatory withdrawals and make people take the money sooner. To change the table dictating the amount required for distribution. To provide better government options for people to invest these funds in. There are way better ways to get more of those dollars than a guaranteed annuity for everyone.
These type of changes are where we may land in the near future.
They don't need to take our money. There are a ton of people who can be tricked into giving it to them.
I think the government WOULD perform such a seizure if they could figure out how to do it without crashing the economy, but they haven’t yet figured out how to do that.
The problem with such a seizure, is that unless it was all secretly pre-planned in massive detail such that on one late Friday afternoon the dictator President announced freezing all IRAs, 401(b)s, 403(b)s and all other plans, the normal process of legislative authorization and its lengthy debate would give plenty of time for everyone to sell out of their retirement accounts, biting the bullet of paying the maximum tax rate incurred from emptying the accounts in a single year. Such a scenario in which everyone attempted to exit at the same time would crash the financial systems and the economy and do it in such a way recovery would be nearly impossible.
Even the above mentioned freeze would itself crash the economy. After all, the government itself couldn’t exactly sell off those trillions overnight in order to convert them to government bonds without crashing the economy either. Heck, they couldn’t even do that over the course of several years. Not to mention the chaos in the markets due to the massive uncertainty such a seizure would cause, meaning the seized assets would become suddenly worthless. And finally, such a seizure would leave millions destitute and lead to massive numbers of lawsuits, adding more chaos and uncertainty.
So the paranoid scenario of sudden retirement account seizure by the government has a probability that approaches zero.
Yeah... it sounds like Dem leaders wanting to raise cap gain taxes on retirement style accounts and the Republicans fighting against it. So the Dems float some idea that “we’ll just nationalize those” etc. Its a threat designed to get tax increases. That’s what I think. It’ll probably work at some level.
14 1/2 years ago?? Where does this stand currently?
I’m surprised Obola didn’t simply try to steal education savings accounts instead of just trying to tax them.
“”for everyone to sell out of their retirement accounts””
How many people have sole control of their accounts?
I’m just surprised they have not already done it and don’t think 401k’s are beyond govt reach either.
You have an entire capital city full of frog boilers and the are getting the pot of cold water and the stove ready for individual retirement accounts. Obama slipped when he thought that free community colleges would balance the loss of tax savings on new 529 deposits. He won't repeat that mistake.
And the insurance companies selling the annuities are among those lobbying to make them mandatory.
European nations begin seizing private pensions
This was in 2010, so I don’t know how that is 14 1/2 yrs. Also, more recently Obama had proposed capping the balance in private retirement that were tax deferred.
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