Free Republic

There is a certain investment firm that has assets under management valued at nearly half the gross domestic product (GDP) of the United States. If you placed it on a list of the largest economies in the world, it would be number three, behind China and ahead of Japan. A significant portion of the funds managed by the firm belong to pension funds and other retirement plans. If you have a 401K, there is a big chance it has some of your money.The firm is called BlackRock, and every pay period when your monthly contribution goes into your retirement plan,...

China moves to reassure global investors who have been drawn to country’s strong growth, booming tech industry American investors are asking whether China Inc. is still worth the risk following a widening series of regulatory crackdowns that have wiped some $400 billion off the value of U.S.-listed Chinese companies. Investors ranging from pension fund Orange County Employees Retirement System in California to money manager William Blair & Co. are rethinking their portfolios following Beijing’s decision last week to curtail the operations of China’s for-profit tutoring industry along with its ongoing campaign to rein in tech companies....

WASHINGTON—The top Democrat on the Senate’s tax-writing committee wants to tax long-term investments like other types of income, raising rates and requiring the wealthiest people to pay taxes on their unrealized gains each year. The plan from Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon is the latest proposal from Democrats in Congress and on the presidential-campaign trail to boost taxes on the wealthy in a bid to address what they view as the problems of economic inequality and provide a funding stream to pay for new programs. While the specific proposal has little chance to become law anytime soon, such ideas could...

(Image via J.M. Smucker Company) The J.R. Smucker company announced last week that 5000 employees will be receiving $1000 bonuses as a result of the Republican tax plan. They also plan to add $20 million to the employee pension program and donate an additional $1 million to charity. "We had a strong third quarter, with sales growth for key brands in every business and strong earnings per share growth fueled by the benefits of U.S. income tax reform and ongoing cost discipline," said Mark Smucker, chief executive officer, in a press release. "These results reflect our commitment to delivering...

A top fundraiser for Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker's presidential campaign met with rival Donald Trump on Monday, The Wall Street Journal reports, but what happened in the meeting – and who requested it – is a matter of debate between the two parties. Anthony Scaramucci, Walker's national finance co-chairman, told the Journal that Trump tried to get him to defect to the Trump campaign, but Scaramucci told him that wasn't going to happen. "He wants to drop Walker and go with me," the Journal quoted Trump. "He wants to endorse me. He said, 'I want to drop Walker and endorse...

A Los Angeles councilman proposed Wednesday that the nation’s second-largest city consider ending tens of millions of dollars of financial ties with troubled JP Morgan Chase & Co. A motion introduced by Democrat Gil Cedillo seeks a review of city business with the nation’s largest bank, as well as an analysis of legal options to end those contracts. It said a city retirement system holds over $100 million in JP Morgan stock and investments, and the city has a line of credit with the bank. The motion also suggests disqualifying the bank from doing further business with City Hall. …

What is going to happen to our 401 (k) accounts and IRA’s after January 1? Will the retirement accounts which many Americans have sacrificed so much to accumulate be rolled over into federally issued and guaranteed bonds in order to prop up notoriously under-funded, union pension funds across the country? Getting an answer will prove to be daunting, especially as media attention seems focused on little but the impending “fiscal cliff.” Listening to a poignant, impromptu speech given by Linda from St. Lucie County during the Allen West recount makes clear just how hard she worked to raise three daughters...

Uncle Sam, in a desperate attempt to fix its $16 trillion-plus deficit, is leering over Americans’ retirement nest egg as its new bailout fund. Capitol Hill politicians are assessing tax changes that could let the Internal Revenue Service lay claim to a portion of the $18 trillion sitting in 401(k) accounts and other tax breaks used by middle-class workers, including cutting the mortgage tax deduction. A commission looking for ways to close the deficit, and, noting the extent of 401(k) tax breaks, recommends an examination of the system as one way to prevent government bankruptcy. Besides 401(k)s, other possibilities include...

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...

BRISTOL — America’s most popular radio talk show host, Rush Limbaugh, blasted Bristol the other day for supposedly making off with some of the $3.3 trillion in loans given to businesses by the Federal Reserve during the recession. While the charge is false – even absurd given the city’s paltry place in the financial arena – Limbaugh didn’t stop there. He described Bristol to his millions of listeners as nothing more than ESPN. “That’s all that’s there: ESPN and a couple of cheap hotels,” Limbaugh said on his nationally syndicated show Thursday. That was more than enough to stir Bristol’s...

As the United States moves into a new decade of military overreach abroad and national bankruptcy at home, Washington is in a desperate search for more revenue and a solution to the future financing of the trillions in national debt obligations currently held by foreign central banks and investors. Economists, politicians and smart investors know the dollar’s days as the world reserve currency are numbered as is our ability to finance the national debt. Although the historical government solution to unsustainable government debt loads has always been the destruction of the debts by currency depreciation and eventual hyperinflation, there is...

INDIANAPOLIS – “I have learned that the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals (Court) extended the ‘stay’ previously placed on the sale of Chrysler, LLC assets, which gives the Indiana State Police Pension Fund, the Indiana Teachers Retirement Fund, and the Major Moves Construction Fund until 4:00 p.m. on Monday, June 8, 2009, to petition a continuing stay by the United States Supreme Court.

A lawsuit from the state of Indiana challenging the constitutionality of using federal Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) funds for automakers, is headed to a federal appeals court. While most public attention this week focused on the bankruptcy of General Motors, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit in New York halted the sale of Chrysler to Italian automaker Fiat Group, announcing it would hear arguments from the Indiana State Police Pension Fund, the Indiana Teacher’s Retirement Fund, and the Major Moves Construction Fund on Friday at 2 p.m. Among the challenges the state is making to block...

Last month, Los Angeles Times columnist Tim Rutten penned a column on the recent tumble of the nation's 401(k) tax-deferred retirement accounts. (Since October 2007 our 401(k)s have lost a third of their value -- a cumulative $1 trillion.) "There's been little discussion of the way in which this economic implosion has exposed the utter failure of the now-ubiquitous 401(k) retirement accounts," Mr. Rutten offered. "In fact, the entire 401(k) system looks increasingly like the sort of bait-and-switch con relished by the Bernie Madoffs of the world." The problem, according to Mr. Rutten, is that "in 1978, when Congress amended...

The Texas oil man discusses the oil-futures market investigation, Yahoo, the presidential election and his wind investments.

One of the hottest documents circulating around Washington today is a highly technical, statistics-laden, 131-page paper by Hoover Institution economist Michael Boskin. First reported by Jim McTague in Barron's on June 16, it estimates that the taxation of pension assets, including Individual Retirement Accounts and 401(k) plans, will yield a $12 trillion (in today's dollars) windfall to the federal government between now and 2040. Business Week followed up with a major story in its June 30 issue. It noted that if Boskin's numbers are correct, this unexpected revenue stream would make up the entire shortfall in Social Security and Medicare...

<p>Coming soon — maybe by mid-June — the old reliable, 1980s model federal 401(k) plan will be overhauled, upgraded, tuned up and given more horsepower.</p> <p>The new bells and whistles will enable federal and military investors to make better-informed decisions, and act more quickly with their $100 billion accounts. They also will make it possible for investors with the proper computer equipment to engage in day trading — which is usually the ticket to a much smaller 401(k) account balance.</p>

<p>Washington, March 6 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission officials say they're concerned that companies are obscuring their pension losses in federal filings and giving investors incomplete information.</p> <p>Companies in the Standard & Poor's 500 Index lost more than $200 billion in the past two years in pension investments without clearly disclosing those losses in SEC filings, according to studies by investment banks Credit Suisse First Boston and UBS Warburg LLC.</p>