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Old 05-20-2009, 02:02 PM
 
Location: Georgia, on the Florida line, right above Tallahassee
10,471 posts, read 15,806,900 times
Reputation: 6436

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The bleak financial snapshot, in a report obtained by The Associated Press, raises new fears that a federal bailout eventually will be needed for the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. The beleaguered agency is being saddled with the underfunded pension plans of companies going bankrupt in the worst economic slump since the Great Depression.
The Associated Press: Deficit surges at agency that insures pensions

The former director of the government's pension agency took the Fifth Amendment Wednesday when senators asked about allegations that he had inappropriate contacts with Wall Street firms while running the operation, which insures the pensions of 44 million Americans.
The Associated Press: Former head of pension agency takes the Fifth


I like the little blurb in the bottom of article #1 where they say, "Add another 77 billion for the auto companies." 100 billion, or 100,000,000,000 dollars. Let's put that in perspective. Nevermind, it's just a big fat number, and is about 329 dollars per every person in the United States. Excuse me, an additional 329 dollars.

I also find it interesting that taxpayers will be paying for the retirement plans for companies that made things that they might not have bought, or never wanted to buy. It's sort of a cosmic "HA HA" on me, isn't it? Ah well, such is life. Work hard, pay your bills, get taxed to pay for someone else's retirement. That's what we do.

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Old 05-20-2009, 04:31 PM
 
Location: Great State of Texas
86,052 posts, read 84,321,515 times
Reputation: 27718
LOL..and several CEO's of big companies went begging to Washington late last year to get a reprieve from shoring up their pensions. And the government allowed that. December 2008 they all knew full well that pensions were not only underfunded but losing value.


http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/12/bu...12pension.html

snippet:
"Companies whose pension funds suffered big losses this year will not have to replenish the money quickly under a relief measure that flew through the Senate Thursday and will next go to the president for his signature."
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Old 05-20-2009, 04:48 PM
 
1,960 posts, read 4,653,279 times
Reputation: 5416
You're not as powerless as you think when it comes to funding other people's retirement. At the pace the PBGC is going, it is likely to face the same fate that social security and medicare are facing. There will be one day where the house of cards falls, and then all bets are off. Remember, retirees will then become an additional burden on the younger generations that earn less than they did in aggregate and are of lesser number as a generation.

In other words, the ponzi scheme is up. Many retirees won't be able to "pick themselves up" and go back to work, others will try to displace younger workers, some will be successful but the majority will not. Firms won't take them when they can sustain a cheaper worker. Essentially their disregard for those behind them will have come to bite them back. Of course as a society we will not allow our elders to rot in the corners of our cities (in spite of the fact that they didn't show regard for their young generationally), so we will be burdened by their existence. This will have an immediate social impact. Civil unrest would unfold almost immediately. Medical bankruptcies would skyrocket and major socialistic safety nets (europization) would have to be enacted to appease an increasingly dispossessed population. We're not quite there yet, there is still time to turn this boat around monetary and fiscal policy wise, but we don't have much more time in the current direction. Keynes was wrong and our leaders are going to screw us all under its guidance. Hoping for another industry bubble to inflate to keep the system going yet again while we throw the printing press on afterburner and hoping said inflationary salvation to occur before the machine breaks down is not the way to save our country from destitution. You default on SS, Medicare and the PBGC and oh man, most larger south american countries would look like a desirable plan B for the median american household. This doesn't look good.
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Old 06-03-2009, 11:20 PM
 
2 posts, read 3,105 times
Reputation: 10
well, getting a high income source in the working period may possible. but after retirement you need some money to feel relaxed about your life.

Self Managed Super
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Old 06-04-2009, 04:38 AM
 
12,867 posts, read 14,886,109 times
Reputation: 4459
Quote:
Originally Posted by hindsight2020 View Post
You're not as powerless as you think when it comes to funding other people's retirement. At the pace the PBGC is going, it is likely to face the same fate that social security and medicare are facing. There will be one day where the house of cards falls, and then all bets are off. Remember, retirees will then become an additional burden on the younger generations that earn less than they did in aggregate and are of lesser number as a generation.

In other words, the ponzi scheme is up. Many retirees won't be able to "pick themselves up" and go back to work, others will try to displace younger workers, some will be successful but the majority will not. Firms won't take them when they can sustain a cheaper worker. Essentially their disregard for those behind them will have come to bite them back. Of course as a society we will not allow our elders to rot in the corners of our cities (in spite of the fact that they didn't show regard for their young generationally), so we will be burdened by their existence. This will have an immediate social impact. Civil unrest would unfold almost immediately. Medical bankruptcies would skyrocket and major socialistic safety nets (europization) would have to be enacted to appease an increasingly dispossessed population. We're not quite there yet, there is still time to turn this boat around monetary and fiscal policy wise, but we don't have much more time in the current direction. Keynes was wrong and our leaders are going to screw us all under its guidance. Hoping for another industry bubble to inflate to keep the system going yet again while we throw the printing press on afterburner and hoping said inflationary salvation to occur before the machine breaks down is not the way to save our country from destitution. You default on SS, Medicare and the PBGC and oh man, most larger south american countries would look like a desirable plan B for the median american household. This doesn't look good.
statistics point out that the younger generation voted for the continuation of the spending spree so i think that there is enough blame to cover several generations here.
there may be an upside to all of this. there was an interesting paper on the mises institute homepage that is worth reading, called "this craziness will end":
http://mises.org/story/3487
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Old 06-04-2009, 04:44 AM
 
12,867 posts, read 14,886,109 times
Reputation: 4459
Quote:
Originally Posted by 70Ford View Post
The bleak financial snapshot, in a report obtained by The Associated Press, raises new fears that a federal bailout eventually will be needed for the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. The beleaguered agency is being saddled with the underfunded pension plans of companies going bankrupt in the worst economic slump since the Great Depression.
The Associated Press: Deficit surges at agency that insures pensions

The former director of the government's pension agency took the Fifth Amendment Wednesday when senators asked about allegations that he had inappropriate contacts with Wall Street firms while running the operation, which insures the pensions of 44 million Americans.
The Associated Press: Former head of pension agency takes the Fifth


I like the little blurb in the bottom of article #1 where they say, "Add another 77 billion for the auto companies." 100 billion, or 100,000,000,000 dollars. Let's put that in perspective. Nevermind, it's just a big fat number, and is about 329 dollars per every person in the United States. Excuse me, an additional 329 dollars.

I also find it interesting that taxpayers will be paying for the retirement plans for companies that made things that they might not have bought, or never wanted to buy. It's sort of a cosmic "HA HA" on me, isn't it? Ah well, such is life. Work hard, pay your bills, get taxed to pay for someone else's retirement. That's what we do.
i find it interesting as well that these people can keep pleading the 5th amendment and nothing ever happens to them.
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Old 06-05-2009, 02:04 PM
 
Location: Steilacoom, WA by way of East Tennessee
1,049 posts, read 4,000,590 times
Reputation: 703
Oh now it all comes out,

Where did the former head of the PBGC work at before this stint? Goldman Sachs! Where did Paulson work as CEO before the US treasury gig....Goldman Sachs! Starting to see a pattern here?

Goldman Sachs, and the rest of the wall street gang run this country, that's the 800 lb gorilla in the room with context to the Trillions in bailouts to the banks. They run the country and are raping the tax payer right in front of our noses and laughing about it all the way.

We are so stupid and so screwed!

Tony
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