Posted on 02/15/2026 9:06:59 PM PST by Libloather
Recessions and stock market crashes are inevitable in a market-based economy, but few Americans realize that their investments face risks far greater than falling stock prices.
Because of largely unknown legal changes, millions of Americans could temporarily or even permanently lose their retirement and other investment savings in the next major financial crash, all while too-big-to-fail Wall Street firms and banks are protected.
That might sound like a wild conspiracy theory, but the danger is real and well documented.
How Wall Street centralized ownership of your investments
Beginning in the 1970s, at the request of powerful Wall Street and banking institutions, state lawmakers quietly adopted a series of changes to the Uniform Commercial Code, a body of law enacted in all 50 states. These changes effectively allowed financial institutions to reassign direct ownership of most securities away from individual investors, including those holding retirement accounts and traditional brokerage accounts.
Under the revised legal framework, direct ownership of securities such as stocks and bonds was centralized within a single financial institution controlled by Wall Street’s largest firms and banks: the Depository Trust Company, or DTC.
Today, DTC "provides custody and asset servicing for 1.44 million security issues from more than 170 countries and territories valued at more than US $100 trillion as of 2025." To put that figure in perspective, the entire federal budget is roughly $7 trillion.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
I’d be willing to take that off your hands. Will even pay for shaping.
Please contact me.
I’m sorry that happened to you.
A friend’s father got bit by that but the bank locked their account and eventually credited the money back.
And the scams are so creative. The calls where you are told an iPhone has been charged to your account are currently making the rounds.
If you have a local bench jeweler (that actually makes jewelry), just ask him who buys gold locally.
It was easily invaded because you gave them access. They can do the same thing with your local bank.
Fraud Prevention. Geez.....
Easy fix. Stop answering your phone.
DTC able to confiscate TIAA/cref?
Read comment # 6. And if you’re over 59.5 years old, I suggest moving your 403b / 457 into an IRA somewhere besides TIAA so that your investments will grow better with less fees.
Phishing is everywhere. People get phish USPS, Amazon, every bank, PayPal, … anything at all common and where money moves.
Probably not PDQ local credit union … yet.
Worthless? You are kidding, right? Any coin dealer or jeweler would be happy to take something that worthless off your hands, and maybe even pay you for it…..lol.
Scares like this have been around for decades. I just sit back without worries while my 401K/IRA just keeps growing and providing income that is reinvested right back.
Wells Fargo does not redact the credit card numbers on your cc bill that goes through unsecure snail mail
prints the full account number whereas other banks only publish the last four numbers
that is poor judgment
“The idea of “Wall St” taking your account (per the title of this article) would have to be the result of such a catastrophic and unprecedented cascade of failures–regulatory, legal, political, and financial simultaneously–that it probably means that your stocks would have lost most of their value anyway.”
Not exactly.
If the brokerage house gets hit with a high level of margin calls, say from crypto or other hedged assets which they cannot cover they need to access other assets to cover -fast. They could claim your assets as their’s to cover their liabilities.
I remember this from the 09 GFC. People on message boards giving advice how to acquire the stock certificates of their shares to prevent them from being loaned out (shorted) by brokerages or used as collateral by the brokerages.
Ping
I don’t think the article above is about short borrowing of shares.
Short selling/lending comes up in forum worries (like the 2008 message boards you mentioned), but that’s a separate issue which doesn’t strip your ownership or expose you to seizure in the way the article describes.
The article here is pushing a broader, more alarmist view about systemic legal risks during a crash, not everyday stock lending practices.
People with small amounts are just going to have to deal with the "downtown" pawn shops, the ones in the mostly seedy areas with the "We buy your gold" neon signs in the window.
A miserable experience as the owners of these shops are obviously more focused on their margins than getting you the most for your gold. If you get 80% of spot price in those situations, consider yourself lucky.
I would say once you get to the $200K mark (40 ounces these days), you can start dealing with national firms.
For those with large amounts of precious metals, I highly recommend storing them in a depository, as opposed to a home safe or a bank safe deposit box.
Storage fees are reasonable, under $200 a year in most cases (I pay $175). You can even pay a little extra, as I do, for segregated storage, where your metals are stored separate and not mixed up with other people's.
Once your gold (and silver) are stored in a depository, get yourself a decent gold custodian, which are the "national firms" I spoke of earlier. Such as Lear Capital, Noble Gold, or Goldco, for example.
Now it becomes much easier to both sell your gold as a routine online or phone transaction. Say you want to sell five ounces, you just place the order and a few days later you get a check or transfer to your account for about $20K.
No more going to see "Joe" in the wifebeater t-shirt down at the pawn shop next to the payday loan joint!
Now of course your custodian is going to take a fee off the top on every transaction, but now you are getting very close to spot (around 95%).
Safe and Mason jars sales on the increase.
For later - thanks.
😎
I wonder who paid for that legislation and do they live in NYC?
they could, but would they? how many folks would instantly raise the black flag?
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