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American Retirement Funds at Serious Risk of Being Seized
The Market Oracle ^ | 12/7/2010 | Jeb_Handwerger

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 ...


TOPICS: Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: 401k; 401ks; argentina; broke; debt; hungary; iras; kleptocracy; pension; retirement; seized; seizure; tyranny
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To: ctdonath2

We can just call it “term limits”.


41 posted on 12/09/2010 10:52:31 AM PST by Sir Gawain
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To: Peter from Rutland

Rest assured that before they would publish this edict, they would have anticipated this (your) move and put stops in to prevent it.


42 posted on 12/09/2010 10:55:37 AM PST by SgtHooper
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To: Peter from Rutland

If they actually confiscate our accounts, violent revolt is clearly justified by the standards of our constitution. This is even still true if they promise some cheesy annuity with no inheritance rights,,,,

Anyone who votes to allow this is no better than a Soviet commissar in 1920,, confiscating a Kulaks possessions. They should *expect* violent resistance.

It is so predictable if you look at history, a train wreck is coming unless they stop trying to establish state socialism. Americans have a right to resist outright theft.


43 posted on 12/09/2010 11:05:38 AM PST by DesertRhino (I was standing with a rifle, waiting for soviet paratroopers, but communists just ran for office)
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To: Peter from Rutland

And don’t take my words as any more threatening than if i were to say,,,, “if a congressman was hitting my daughter, i would beat him to death”.

Outright confiscation of savings accounts is true, legitimate, historic “Causus Belli”.


44 posted on 12/09/2010 11:08:55 AM PST by DesertRhino (I was standing with a rifle, waiting for soviet paratroopers, but communists just ran for office)
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To: FromLori

If people want to end socialist security, then I have no problem with paying out what people have put in ( I get a statement each year, and have paid more than 350K into this ponzi scheme...with that money, I could live comfortably for the rest of my life ) but the problem is that conservatives want to deny me the cash and the retirement....the libs want to take the cash I saved over 35 years and confiscate it to bolster up the program that I have already paid more than 350K into....I owe next to nothing on my home, yet a repo of my home sells for less than I owe after paying for 22 years....It is my opinion that both libs and conservatives want to screw the 45 to 65 year old population in order to keep those on socialist security on it, and to keep the younger ones wanting to pay into it.....I refuse to be screwed in order to achieve this...leave my money alone, and pay me back what I have put in...nothing more, nothing less..and I will happily opt out of all government assistance from that point forward...take from me what I have spent a lifetime working for, and I will have nothing left to lose..and as my grandpa used to say...” Who is the most dangerous person in the world? A person that has nothing to lose”..........


45 posted on 12/09/2010 11:15:47 AM PST by joe fonebone (The House has oversight of the Judiciary...why are the rogue judges not being impeached?)
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To: thethirddegree
This is the kind of behavior that would get a lot of people moving on D.C. with loaded guns.

Will never, ever happen.

46 posted on 12/09/2010 11:22:42 AM PST by Clint Williams ( America -- a great idea, didn't last: get out while you can.)
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To: ctdonath2
In the last two years they printed $100,000,000,000 cash - and it’s all locked in a warehouse.

Of which apparently HALF is sitting on shrink-wrapped palettes in either Af-Stan or Iraq, OR stashed away in Swiss banks.

;-)

Contrast: there is about $1.7T cash in existence.

From what source do we know that?

47 posted on 12/09/2010 11:23:49 AM PST by Conservative Tsunami
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To: FromLori
They do that here...

It'd be "go time".

48 posted on 12/09/2010 11:27:50 AM PST by Dead Corpse (III, Alarm and Muster)
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To: Clint Williams

Don’t bet money on that.


49 posted on 12/09/2010 11:29:40 AM PST by Dead Corpse (III, Alarm and Muster)
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To: ClearCase_guy

Of that, I am certain.


50 posted on 12/09/2010 11:34:33 AM PST by Gator113 (Sarah Palin can win, and she will win.)
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To: billorites
"Any frog jumping out of the pot early will be rediculed by all the other frogs staying in the nice warm water. If you land in the fire instead, they will laugh at you and point out how it was much better to stay in the pot like a good little froggie. After all, it ain't boiling yet is it?" - Me. July, 2006

Over four years later and it still holds true.

51 posted on 12/09/2010 11:59:27 AM PST by Dead Corpse (III, Alarm and Muster)
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To: CaptainKip; Peter from Rutland
make it retroactive.

Im not sure that would fly legally. I would say you can be sure this scenario is a certainty when they change the redemption rules for 401k accounts. The first step is to lock everyone in.
52 posted on 12/09/2010 12:00:01 PM PST by wafflehouse (RE-ELECT NO ONE !)
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To: FromLori

Google “Teresa Ghilarducci”


53 posted on 12/09/2010 12:10:42 PM PST by Buckeye McFrog
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To: wafflehouse

I would tend to believe something like this could have happened had things not gone the way they did on November 2nd. Now that the house will be GOP controlled I doubt it will happen (in the next two years anyway).


54 posted on 12/09/2010 12:19:27 PM PST by Peter from Rutland
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To: thethirddegree
This is the kind of behavior that would get a lot of people moving on D.C. with loaded guns.

Nah, it will just be a little more heat under the pot as all us frogs get boiled.

55 posted on 12/09/2010 12:48:12 PM PST by glorgau
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To: Bullish; CJ Wolf; houeto; Quix; B4Ranch; Whenifhow; Silentgypsy; blam; FromLori; Lurker; ...
Our-current-regime-is-to-the-left-of-Hungary ping.

"Economic Holocaust" ping.

Increasing volume ping list watching the slow motion Economic Holocaust.

FReepmail me if you want on or off
The Comedian's "Economic Holocaust" ping list...


Frowning takes 68 muscles.
Smiling takes 6.
Pulling this trigger takes 2.
I'm lazy.

56 posted on 12/09/2010 12:52:15 PM PST by The Comedian (Government: Saving people from freedom since time immemorial.)
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To: Peter from Rutland

I hope you’re right, but I’m not so sure any longer. If the newbies hold the line, we’ve bought ourselves a little time, but if we start having defections, get ready for war.

Either way, keep your powder dry.


57 posted on 12/09/2010 1:20:18 PM PST by paladin1_dcs
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To: Buckeye McFrog

Oh just great...

Teresa Ghilarducci

In her book When I’m Sixty-Four: The Plot against Pensions and the Plan to Save Them, Ghilarducci proposed mandatory participation in a government-run savings plan to which each citizen would contribute five percent of his salary.[3][4][7][8][9][10] The plan would be administered by the Social Security Administration, but would be separate from citizens’ social security accounts. In turn, a refundable tax credit of $600 would go to each participant, regardless of his contributions. The account would have a guaranteed interest rate equal to the government’s official inflation rate plus three percent.[1]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teresa_Ghilarducci

Why Is Teresa Ghilarducci Considered “The Most Dangerous Woman in America”

http://www.annuitydigest.com/blog/tom/why-teresa-ghilarducci-considered-most-dangerous-woman-america


58 posted on 12/09/2010 3:26:29 PM PST by FromLori (FromLori)
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