Free Republic

With the next round of Democratic presidential candidate debates upon us, we will surely hear more about government activism to fix racial inequalities. Inequality is real and needs attention. According to the Urban Institute, average white household wealth in 2016 was $171,000 compared with average black household wealth of $17,409. Sen. Cory Booker wants government to make deposits into savings accounts for low-income children to the tune of up to $50,000 each. Sen. Kamala Harris proposes $100 billion in government subsidies for black homeownership. These kinds of proposals may win some black votes, but should they? Will they really make...

One of the Obama administration's final major labor regulations could deprive millions of retirement savers investment advice from financial professionals, according to a new report.The Department of Labor proposed the Fiduciary Rule in April 2015, which would allow regulators to oversee the relationship between retirement account advisors and their clients to ensure that the former were completing trades for the sole interest of their clients. The rule was approved in 2016 under the leadership of Labor Secretary Tom Perez, now the head of the Democratic Party."In 2016, the Department took a historic step to protect the savings of America's workers—the...

President Obama’s regulators aren’t slowing down, alas. And on Wednesday they unveiled another part of their plan to push Americans out of private investment accounts and into government-run plans.

President Barack Obama will pitch some new proposals to expand access to retirement savings accounts and revisit some old ones when issuing his budget next month. [...] The White House says Obama's proposals, if enacted, would provide more than 30 million people access to a retirement account. The biggest chunk of that increase would occur through legislation requiring employers that don't offer a retirement plan to automatically enroll their workers in an Individual Retirement Account. The employers that did so would get a tax credit of $3,000 to help them offset the administrative expense. The proposal was also part of...

President Obama is delivering a speech about retirement investing today: Just terrific… But wait, it gets better!Obama’s speech included this warning: Ha! Sound familiar? Anyone? … Anyone? That’s it!But there’s more:

Retirement savers may soon get a boost from the U.S. Supreme Court. On Tuesday, the country's highest court will hear arguments in a case that revolves around the investment fees paid by 401(k) plan participants. In the initial class-action lawsuit, Tibble v. Edison, participants in the 401(k) plan sponsored by California-based utility Edison International argued that they were being charged excessive fees.

The Obama administration is proposing tougher restrictions on brokers who manage Americans’ retirement accounts, reigniting a confrontation with the financial services industry over rules affecting trillions of dollars in 401K and other savings accounts. The change would put brokers—who sell stocks, bonds, annuities and other investments—under the stricter requirements for registered financial advisers when they handle clients’ retirement accounts. In a long-anticipated move, the Labor Department is making the proposal Monday to the White House Budget Office. After an internal review, it likely will be put out for public comment for several months. Obama was scheduled to address the AARP...

President Barack Obama's fiscal year 2016 budget was unveiled Monday to the American public, along with the Department of Treasury's Greenbook, which provides further explanation and details of the proposals in the president's budget. In truth, the president's budget is really more of a wish list than anything else, but it's a good indication of where the administration is headed. This year's version of the budget includes a number of provisions targeting retirement accounts. That's no surprise, as provisions aimed at retirement accounts have been a regular feature in budgets in recent years. What is a surprise, however, is how...

I spend a lot of time browsing FR, and have noticed a lot of FReepers have a lot of knowledge/opinions pertaining to finances. There also appears to be a good number of Freepers who are about retirement age with a good conservative viewpoint. Taking into consideration current events and the steady devaluation of the dollar, my question to the experienced Freepers out there is this: Let's say you're 25, are debt free, make no car payments, earn O-2 pay and are unmarried. You don't have any retirement accounts but are apprehensive of starting an IRA or contributing to a Thrift...

In a news story that should terrify Americans, Poland reduces public debt through pension funds overhaul (reform). On Wednesday, Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk said private funds within the state-guaranteed system would have their bond holdings transferred to a state pension vehicle, but keep their equity holdings. The funds would effectively be left with only the equities portions of their assets, even this would be depleted, and there will be uncertainty about the number of new savers joining. By shifting some assets from the private funds into ZUS, the government can book those assets on the state balance sheet to...

Quietly, behind the scenes, the groundwork is being laid for federal government confiscation of tax-deferred retirement accounts such as IRAs. Slowly, the cat is being let out of the bag. Last January 18th, in a little noticed interview of Richard Cordray, acting head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Bloomberg reported "[t]he U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau [CFPB] is weighing whether it should take on a role in helping Americans manage the $19.4 trillion they have put into retirement savings, a move that would be the agency's first foray into consumer investments." That thought generates some skepticism, as aptly expressed...

the Treasury has plundered about $206 billion from the two primary retirement accounts: the G-Fund and the Civil Service Retirement and Disability Fund... there is about $62 billion in available debt ceiling stretching options. In other words, Tim Geithner has burned through 75% of his dry powder just 50 days into the debt ceiling breach. What happens in the next few days ...Treasury would need to use about $37 billion of that $62 billion in July, and would exhaust the rest with the settlement of auctions on August 1.

About a year ago Zero Hedge posted an article titled: "Record Number Of Americans Using Retirement Funds As Source Of Immediate Cash" after a report by Fidelity uncovered that "plan participants with loans outstanding against their 401(k) accounts had reached 22 percent versus 20 percent a year earlier." It is now time to revisit this very important topic because if recent press reports are true, last year's record number has just increased by another 50%. "On "The Early Show" Thursday, financial journalist and Newsweek columnist Joanne Lipman said, "Right now we have 30 percent of people who have 401(k)s have...

Newsmax Watch Out! Feds Could Seize Your Private Retirement Savings Saturday, May 21, 2011 04:58 PM By: Greg Brown How long before Uncle Sam hits private pensions to balance the public budget? It’s quickly becoming a reasonable question to ask. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner is ringing alarm bells across Washington, D.C., warning of a disastrous outcome if an agreement to raise the debt ceiling is not made soon. “A default would call into question, for the first time, the full faith and credit of the U.S. Pensions, Federal Government, Debt Ceiling, Retirementgovernment,” Geithner wrote in a letter Friday to Sen....

As US Reaches Debt Limit, Geithner Implements Additional Extraordinary Measures To Allow Continued Funding Of Government Obligations By: Colleen Murray 5/16/2011 Today, the United States has reached the statutory debt limit. Secretary Geithner sent the following letter to Congress this morning alerting them to actions that have be taken to create additional headroom under the debt limit so that Treasury can continue funding obligations made by Congresses past and present. The Secretary declared a "debt issuance suspension period" for the Civil Service Retirement and Disability Fund, permitting Treasury to redeem a portion of existing Treasury securities held by that fund...

How the US Government Will Seize Your Retirement Account By Simon BlackMay 12, 2011 Following in the footsteps of a rather ignominious list of nations like Argentina and Hungary, the government of lreland is set to take its 'fair share' of private retirement funds. Drowning in debt and faced with unpopular, unrealistic, ridiculously unpopular austerity measures, the government has announced that it will now tax private pension savings in order to raise 470 million euros (roughly $675 million) per year... a lot of money in a country of only 4.4 million people. Somehow, the government expects to be able to...

Is Your IRA or 401K a Target of Government Appropriation?Chris Blasi Published 5/19/2010 Will the laws and rules in place to protect individuals in their attempt to set something aside for retirement be safeguarded by the representatives elected to advocate for them in Washington? Will the principles and moral integrity of the political class keep them from appropriating the trillions of dollars held in 401k's and IRA's? I'm not so sure! While the answer is most likely yes, when one realizes the magnitude of the financial predicament the U.S. might well find itself in shortly, it is indeed, conceivable that...

Nothing is safe with these people running the show. I warned you back in October of 2008 that the Democrats wanted to do away with 401k accounts, to be replaced by “guaranteed retirement accounts.” Well, they’ve been busy wrecking the economy, passing trillion dollar health care bills and exploding the national debt. That doesn’t mean they’ve given up on their wish list. And it looks like our 401k accounts are right there at the top of that list.

One aspect of a new and improved federal regulatory scheme is the seizure of 401(k) retirement plans and the subsequent government-administered disbursement of the funds. In Chapter 3 of the Annual Report on the Middle Class released in February by Vice President Biden and the White House Task Force on the Middle Class, the Obama administration calls for enhancing the “retirement options” for the middle class by imposing “new regulations to improve the transparency and adequacy of 401(k) retirement savings.” The plan, as sketched in the 43-page document, calls for the creation of something called “Guaranteed Retirement Accounts” (GRAs). Biden...

It has been reported by Business Week that the US Labor Department and Treasury Department are asking for public comment on a plan to convert individuals' retirement accounts (IRAs and 401(k)s) into government sponsored annuities featuring US Government bonds. The scheme would start off as voluntary, but only makes sense -- like socialized health care -- if it becomes mandatory and universal. In essence the government is asking if we would mind if they nationalized our money in return for a promise of more money in the future . . . like a Ponzi scheme called Social Security, but even...