Posted on 08/25/2010 12:17:45 PM PDT by IbJensen
Thoughts while pondering the 43 cents of interest I earned on my savings.
A few days ago I received my monthly statement from Fidelity Investments, where I keep some of my retirement savings. It told me that the cash I keep in a money market account there is earning an annual rate of interest of 0.01%. Yes, that is one one-hundredth of one percent.
I have enough cash in that account to buy a fancy new car or take a glorious long vacation but it earned me the grand sum of 43 cents in interest in the month of July.
-snip-
What this tells me is that our economic policy-makers in Washington don't give a damn about savers. The Federal Reserve is holding short-term interest rates to near zero in a monetary policy that could be reduced to a headline like one that became famous back in the 1970s:
-snip
Obama's big-spending stimulus plans clearly have failed to revive the economy, and the Fed's policy of printing money and virtually giving it away have rewarded the wrong people and left responsible folks -- those who work, pay taxes, restrain their spending and put away some savings -- feeling like suckers being conned in a political shell game.
Obama postures as the champion of ordinary people...
-snip-
The nation can little afford to maintain the Obama-Bernanke economic policies of rising deficits, ballooning national debt, unlimited money-printing, high unemployment and no reward for saving or investing. It will end in something worse than the 2008 collapse, unless Americans wake up in November and say: "Enough!"
Only a two-by-four to the head of the Democratic Party's donkey will get their attention. It's beginning to look like the voters are reaching for the lumber.
(Excerpt) Read more at spectator.org ...
In this corner, ladies and gentlemen, in the blue trunks, Team Left: welfare hacks, teachers, public union thugs, and corrupt banksters.
And in this corner, in the red trunks with both hands tied behind his back, Team Right: savers, private sector employees, small businessmen.
The fight is anything but fair; the object is to strip and transfer ALL the wealth from Team Right to Team Left; anything goes for Team Left but Team Right is literally tied down for the beating....
Ding-ding!!! We're already in the third round, Mr. Gannon, and Team Right is taking an awful beating.......where's the Fight Doctor?
Wow, where do you get 43 cents??
The idea is to keep the rates low so the government can borrow cheaply from China for war, health care and tax cuts.
How can lenders get 29%, and pay out only a fraction of one percent?
Congress has it’s head so firmly implanted, it would take a Siamese twin expert to extract.
And then McCain wins the nomination.
We deserve what we get. If we’re this stupid, the Left should just pile it on. We evidently like it.
Why on earth would you ever save with government money? That’s like cranking Death Metal to help you sleep.
Well put.
Americans began closing their savings accounts by the boatloads after Congress decided to tax the interest that they were earning. Apparently, no source of income is too small or too sacred to be taxed . . . . . . except theirs, of course!!
Since that time, Americans have saved considerably less than their European counterparts. This is another incidence of the Law of Unintended Consequences. The only bright spot in all of this is that Congress has complained regularly since that time about America savings accounts.
Tax cuts? What tax cuts?
And my savings plan is encouraging me to sign up for their advisor sevice for only .1% annually.
"By a continuous process of inflation, governments can confiscate, secretly and unobserved, an important part of the wealth of their citizens. By this method, they not only confiscate, but they confiscate arbitrarily; and while the process impoverishes many, it actually enriches some. The process engages all of the hidden forces of economic law on the side of destruction, and does it in a manner that not one man in a million can diagnose."
That, also manipulates people from savings to riskier choices, ie stocks. Thus, it helped spur the stock boom, while savings depleted.
Throw in the credit commodity boom bust and you have part of a perfect storm.
Why haven’t you moved it by now?
Where’s he going to put it? Some investment advisers are saying ‘cash is king.’
I don’t buy that, but put my money in big dividend stocks that have been around a while and are in a critical industry: like oil and the transmission of same!
What the author says is on the money...plus this is killing those who counted on interest on savings to augment their social security or other pension benefits, if they have any. The move has caused a lot of individuals who should NOT be in the stock market or to invest in riskier instruments to do so. Now they got the double whammy, their stock or real estate investments have declined in value.
Before about 1984 or so, you used to be able to accrue $600 worth of interest on passbook savings accounts and not pay any taxes on it. Now, you have to pay taxes on every cent as regular income...............
The Federal Reserve is the main pillar of Big Gov’t and the progressive state. It must be shut down.
If the Federal Reserve didn’t exist, there would be NO WAY for the Feds to carry off ponzi-schemes like Soc. Sec. and Medicare. There would be no bubbles, and there would be no bail-outs of politically-favored bankers who play the markets with tax-payer guarantees. The Government would be FORCED to live within its means, or immediately raise funds through taxes or borrowing. The effects would be immediate and clear.
We would have hard money. Productivity increases in the economy would go directly to workers wages. Savers and producers would not be penalized or have their wages stolen through inflation or bust-bubbles.
Time to shut down the Federal Reserve
Just search for best savings rate, there’s a number that are well over .01%
My investments are in my small business and in firearms and ammunition. Small business is always a risk, but firearms hold their value exceptionally well.
You've got "savings"? der Fuhrer 0bama will take care of that!
HMMMM Fidelity or the mega banks that seem to keep going bankrupt with foolish lending....
I’ll stick with Fidelity
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