Posted on 12/09/2010 9:40:45 AM PST by FromLori
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 two years ago to compensate for falling tax revenue after a 2005 debt restructuring.
On November 24th the Hungarian government gave its citizens an ultimatum: move your private-pension fund assets to the state or lose your state pension. Economy Minister Gyorgy Matolcsy announced the policy, escalating a government drive to bring 3 trillion forint ($14.6 billion) of privately managed pension assets under state control to reduce the budget deficit and public debt. Workers who opt against returning to the state system stand to lose 70 percent of their pension claim.
Americans who think "this can't happen here" may want to think again.
In September of this year the US Treasury investigated the possibility of requiring retirement funds to hold a percentage of government securities in their investment portfolio. That, in effect, would be a nationalization of 401ks and IRAs.
And don't think for a second that the US is in better financial shape than Hungary.
(Excerpt) Read more at marketoracle.co.uk ...
If they ever tried to seize this stuff I’d simply drain the accounts and take the loss.
This is the kind of behavior that would get a lot of people moving on D.C. with loaded guns.
Lori...they would probably pass a law to make cashing out our retirement accounts illegal and make it retroactive.
Violence would be the only sensible reaction to such an attempt.
I can’t think of a clearer example of government robbing the people of something the people have earned.
its gone....all that giving up vacations, and second homes and fancy cars etc so you could be a "responsible" citizen and pay your bills and save for retirement....it all meant NOTHING at all...
Thank goodness they haven’t yet succeeded in disarming us all.
We live in a kleptocracy, where thieves make all the rules, and control everything. Sooner or later, Americans will have to do whatever is necessary to prosecute them in the public court, execute them for the destruction they’ve caused, and restore Constitutional law.
They will be very sneaky about taking your money.
First they will pass some rule that forces the 401K managers to move part of your portfilio into government bonds. They they will keep on shifting the percentage until all of your 401K is in government bonds. At that point hey own your retirement fund.
This is exactly how they will do it. They're corrupt, not stupid.
I agree I noticed obama’s favorite banker is back at the White House again no doubt giving him pointers or just flat out telling him what to do and lol some people still believe he is anti banker even though they donated so heavily to him, acorn, etc.
Obama, Dimon Met at White House to Talk Economy, Official Says
Nice dream. More like “later”. I’ve been having that same dream....
but I fear it will never happen.
The socialist (communist) Dems have gotten away with everything else so far. I have no reason to think they won’t continue to get away witn their treachery, treason and theft.
It's only a matter of time before our King confiscates the middle class serf's home equity, IRAs, pensions, and rest of what's in the piggy bank. BECAUSE THEY CAN.
Bleat if you must. So far it's all anyone does.
The bankers took the Irish pensions to pay for the bad loans the debt they are having to pay is bad bank debt!
Why the Irish Crisis is Going Global
Short answer because they have to pay off all the banks bad debts! See here..
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Why-the-Irish-Crisis-is-Going-usnews-4028366968.html?x=0
Up to €50 billion—nearly $50,000 for every household in the Emerald Isle
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704506404575592360334457040.html
Ireland’s Debt Servitude
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/finance/ambroseevans-pritchard/100008812/irelands-debt-servitude
Well they are not getting ours I actually mailed in a request yesterday to get our remaining money out.
I'll take it out in trade....
Donna Shalala (sp?), Clinton’s Secretary of HHS, raised the idea of “recapturing” lost taxes on 401k’s and was quickly slapped down by her boss, Bill Clinton, circa 1993.
George Coats 29 Nov 2010
Asset managers will have the chance to get billions of euros in mandates in the next few months for the €36bn Fonds de Réserve pour les Retraites (FRR), the French reserve pension fund, after the French parliament last week passed a law to use its assets to pay off the debts of France’s welfare system.
The assets have been transferred into the state’s social debt sinking fund Cades. The FRR will continue to control the assets, but as a third-party manager on behalf of Cades.
The change is included in the annual social security law that was adopted last week and will be published by the end of December after anticipated approval by the constitutional court.
The move reflects a willingness by governments to use long-term assets to fill short-term deficits, including Ireland’s announcement last week that it would use the country’s €24bn National Pensions Reserve Fund “to support the exchequer’s funding programme” and Hungary’s bid to claw $15bn of private pension funds back to the state system.
The decision has prompted a radical restructuring of the FRR’s investments. The new strategic investment plan, which will be released in the new year, will see a rapid reduction in its 40% allocation to equities and a shift to cash and short-term government bonds, according to a source close to the situation.
There will be a focus on liability-driven investment, where asset managers are told to minimise risk by matching assets closely to liabilities.
The transfer of the FRR’s assets to Cades is controversial. Force Ouvrière, a trade union confederation, accused the government of “provoking the clinical death” of the FRR.
The decision was taken within the context of this year’s pension reform, which provoked riots with its decision to raise the retirement age. The state old-age pension system, the Cnav, is in deficit, and responsibility for financing the deficit rests with Cades.
The government is requiring the FRR to pay €2.1bn a year to Cades to meet this obligation.
The government claims that the rise in retirement age will return Cnav to balance by 2018, so the FRR is expected to pay this sum for the next eight years. The FRR will then be wound down. It is expected to cease operations by 2024.
The schedule of payments will account for about two-thirds of the FRR’s assets. A source close to the situation said: “That means it will keep about one-third of the total without any liability constraint, and will have the opportunity to manage that part of the fund in a normal active and long-term way.”
Another source said: “In most years, the FRR accounts for more than 50% of asset management mandates in France.”
He said the FRR had been an innovative force in the relatively conservative French asset management world. It had pioneered a shift in the style of managing money in France, from balanced mandates, where a single fund manager invested its client’s money in many different asset classes, to specialist mandates, involving many fund managers focusing on particular areas of expertise.
The FRR promoted socially responsible investment, increased the use of investment consultants and encouraged objectivity in assessing performance.
The source added that without the FRR, “the risk is that the market will slip back into its old habits and slower pace”.
An asset manager said: “Clearly, the move creates new opportunities, because the French asset management market will be reshuffled because of the changes.
But it is also a step back because there are very few French capitalised pension schemes, and the experience around the FRR, the richness of the asset management and the opportunities it created will disappear in a few years.”
“American Retirement Funds at Serious Risk of Being Seized”
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Yo Commies:
Got Civil War if you want it.
“I can’t think of a clearer example of government robbing the people of something the people have earned.”
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Maybe not quite as clear, but the ongoing, trillion dollar, openly racist reparations program originally known as the “War on Poverty”, for one.
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