Banksters are Coming for Your Retirement Next

Eric Blair
Activist Post

First, the banksters hoodwinked an angry public into bailing out their collateralized-debt obligations and derivative Ponzi scheme to the tune of what may turn out to be over $600 Trillion dollars.  Derivatives are nothing more than bets on other bets, on other bets, that are all completely worthless. So, we can assume that the taxpayer will be victimized for at least that amount for derivatives alone.  That’s about $2 million dollars for every man, woman, and child in America, or $100,000 for every person in the world.

They bet big with your investment money, got fat, then lost thousands of times more than everything real on Earth combined.  Then, representatives of the people bailed them out (including bonuses) while they laughed all the way to their respective banks.  Since government officials are doing their best to reject transparency, we can also only assume this number is much, much larger.

Sadly, their derivative Ponzi scheme is the least of the public’s current problems regarding the banks.  The international banks’ economic hit men have successfully enslaved-by-debt everything from nations, entire industries, state and local governments (who will need their bailout soon), and nearly every person on the planet. Even if an individual doesn't have any bank financing or credit cards, they still pay the private Federal Reserve through inflation. As author of Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, John Perkins, would say: the time has come for the banks to collect their “pound of flesh” from average citizens by way of your pensions.  For an enlightening explanation of how economic hit men enslave entire countries please watch the video below:

oday, the word “austerity” is becoming commonplace in European countries, and America may indeed be next on the chopping block.  The IMF is pushing economically-weak European countries into austerity measures that target average citizens for debts their government owes to banks, including slashing and looting pension guarantees. Incidentally, the U.S. national debt, plus unfunded liabilities and personal and private debt, puts America in far worse shape than all European countries combined.

As we near the End Game, the banksters and their government accomplices are coming for the last of your wealth -- your retirement money.  Recent headlines about the IMF “pressing the U.S.“ to reduce its debt is the first sign of things to come.  They have already methodically gutted the assets of most public pension funds by knowingly investing those funds in toxic junk.  In late 2009, Mark Brenner wrote an excellent article titled  Pensions: The Next Casualty for Wall Street which gave a breakdown of the dismal state of pensions:

Nearly $4 trillion worth of retirement savings were wiped out in the first weeks of the 2008 financial freefall. Half of the drop was concentrated in traditional pension plans, also known as defined-benefit plans. While most workers in these plans haven’t had their monthly benefits cut, unlike the 46 million people riding the stock market with 401(k) defined-contribution plans, the storm clouds are gathering.

 Furthermore, we’ve also seen the captains of “private” industry pump their bottom line for years with their worker’s pension contributions (much like the federal government has done with Social Securityreceivables).  When it comes time to pay the pensions they dump the obligation onto the taxpayer through the Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation which was reported to be $12.9 billion in the red for 2009.  Once again, the taxpayers are funding their own servitude while the ownership class pillages on the way up and on the way down.

I can’t help but be reminded that warnings of this day went unheard.  This George Carlin clip below sternly warned that the “owners of this country” will ultimately come for your retirement -- but, hey, who was listening to a comedian?

That’s right, the day is rapidly approaching where they’ll come for your retirement.  Screw your guarantees you thought you worked your whole life for.  Apparently, contractual law does not apply to the servant class.  However, we all remember Hank Paulson and Tim Geithner arguing that the reason they must use taxpayer money to pay 100-cents-on-the-dollar for AIG’s rancid obligations was because it would be wrong to break contractual laws.  I guess we shouldn’t be surprised that they only respect contractual law when they are taking from the poor and giving to their elite partners in crime. 

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Baby Boomers: Get Out of the Stock Market Now, the Rug is Being Pulled Out By Insiders

CNBC reports insider selling-to-buying ratio for top firms is a staggering 3177 to 1

Eric Blair

Activist Post

If you're a baby boomer who still believes in the stock market since the financial collapse of 2008, listen up. The floor of this Ponzi scheme is about to drop out, leaving you punching a clock for some time to come and holding an empty retirement bag for your effort.  The engineered crash is coming and the elite are jumping ship in droves -- you should join them and get out ASAP.

Stock market insider selling has now reached record highs.  The trend has been increasing for the last several years, but now the ratios are getting beyond ridiculous.  Earlier this month, Zero Hedge reported that the insider selling-to-buying ratio is 2341 to 1.  Tyler Durden wrote:

After last week saw an insider selling to buying ratio of 1,411 to 1, this week the ratio has nearly doubled, hitting a ridiculous 2,341 to 1. And while Wall Street's liars and CNBC's clowns will have you throw all your money into "leading" techs like Oracle and Google, insiders in these names sold a combined $200 million in stock in the last week alone.

Today, CNBC reported that the insider selling activity at some of the largest traded companies is at an all-time high.  This can't be a good sign of things to come.  The article points to the analysis of Alan Newman, a market strategist who tracks insider trading: "The overwhelming volume of sell transactions relative to buy transactions by company insiders over the last six months in key leading sectors of the market is the worst . . . ever."  CNBC reported that industry leaders have a staggering 3177 to 1 insider sell-to-buy ratio:

The largest companies in three of the most important leading sectors of the market have seen their executives classified as insiders sell more than 120 million shares of stock over the last six months. Top executives at these very same companies bought just 38,000 shares over that same time period, making for an eye-popping sell to buy ratio of 3,177 to one.

The grand total for the three sectors are “as awful as we have ever seen since we began doing this exercise years ago,” said Newman, who was ahead on such trends as the dangers of high-frequency trading and ETFs before the ‘Flash Crash’. “Clearly, insiders are seeing great value only in cash. Their actions speak volumes for the veracity for the current rally.”

Also quoted in the CNBC piece was Simon Baker, CEO of Baker Asset Management, who said the insider data “is good reason for considerable caution once the price action fades,” and “insiders normally buy early and sell early too. Longer term -- 12 months out -- it is more of a red flag.”

It's pretty difficult to excuse these levels of insider looting, but the experts are doing their best to claim that these poor executives (the titans of their industries) must take profits from stock sales because their salaries and bonuses have been cut.  Who do they think they are kidding?  Wall Street is still paying record salaries and bonuses, reportedly worth $144 billion (about a $1000 for every working American).  There also has been very little news of other industry executives taking pay cuts, as American companies are holding record levels of cash to the tune ofover a trillion dollars.  In fact, the flush-with-cash CEOs continue to blame the consumer class for joblessness.

Despite the mass exodus of executives from their own company's stock, the S&P continues to remain somewhat stable since gaining 16% from July lows.  Well, those gains seem somewhat pathetic since the value of the dollar -- measured against the human inflation indexes such as food and oil -- has plummeted.  Major food commodities are up over 50% since their July lows, while oil prices have climbed $10 to over $81/bbl, or around 14% for the same time period, with predictions to break the $100/bbl mark very shortly.  

Barely covering the cost of real inflationary measures is hardly success, especially with the current risks involved with being in the stock market.  These risks have only increased since the 2008 financial collapse that eventually caused the stock market to bottom out the mid-6000 range.  The market has been propped up with TARP funds and driven by scandalous front-running by Goldman Sachs and other large firms leading to 70% of stock purchases to be held for an average of 11 seconds. Consequently, these robo-trading programs have also been blamed for the freak "Flash Crash" in May where the stock market plummeted over 900 points in just minutes.

The charade is almost up, as the bad-but-getting-even-worse main street economy is not remotely factored in to Wall Street's casino calculations.  Truth is, most states are approaching bankruptcy, unemployment continues to worsen, and yet another major scandal is playing out with Fraudclosure Gate. Newman, the insider trading expert, says, “At the risk of sounding like a broken record, we expect a significant correction."

Unless you are an ultra-sophisticated trader with access to front-running software, it is time to follow these insiders out of the stock market and into real assets.  As the Fed announces plans for QE2, which the stock market actually views as a good thing, the elite seem to be flocking to precious metals, commodities, and large agricultural land purchases on the expectation of an even weaker dollar.  This appears to make gold, food, and oil pretty safe bets for the average bloke.

Recently by Eric Blair:
U.S. Debt Woes Expose Hidden Austerity and Looting of Public Assets
The After-the-Fed Solutions Debate Begins: Greenbackers vs. Goldbugs

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Government Prepares To Seize Private Pensions

Paul Joseph Watson
Infowars.com
October 12, 2010

The government is preparing to seize the private 401(k) pensions of millions of Americans while enforcing an additional 5 per cent payroll tax as part of a new bailout program that will empower the Social Security Administration to redistribute pension funds in a frightening example of big government gone wild.

Public pension plans have been so aggressively looted already by the government that cities and counties face a $574 billion funding gap, according to a CNBC report.

That black hole is set to be filled by a new proposal that will “fairly” distribute taxpayer-funded pensions to everyone, by confiscating the private wealth of millions of Americans. Its proponents express staggering arrogance in thinking that they can just steal money people have worked for decades to accrue as if it’s their own.

Not only would the government confiscate 401(k) pensions, it would also impose a mandatory 5 per cent payroll tax payable by everyone, according to a hearing chaired last week by Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), Chairman of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee.

“This would, of course, be a sister government ponzi scheme working in tandem with Social Security, the primary purpose being to give big government politicians additional taxpayer funds to raid to pay for their out-of-control spending,” writes Connie Hair.

The hearing was a platform for advocates of Guaranteed Retirement Accounts (GRAs), a program authored by Teresa Ghilarducci, professor of economic policy analysis at the New School for Social Research in New York. Back in November 2008, Ghilarducci testified to Congress that 401(k)s and IRAs should be confiscated and converted into universal Guaranteed Retirement Accounts (GRAs) managed by the Social Security Administration.

“You don’t hold hearings on something you don’t intend to do,” points out the Market Ticker blog. “I hate it when I’m right. I hate it even more when tens of millions of Americans are going to get reamed to pay for the crimes of the handful on Wall Street, and their crony enablers in Washington DC.”

The GRAs would be enforced by means of a mandatory savings tax equating to 5 per cent of an individual’s annual paycheck deposited to the GRA. Social Security and Medicare taxes would still be payable, employers would no longer would be able to write off their contributions and capital gains would be taxable year-on-year. In addition, workers could bequeath only half of their account balances to their heirs, unlike full balances from existing 401(k) and IRA accounts.

During a Seattle radio interview in October 2008, Ghilarducci explained the motive behind the plan, stating, “I’m just rearranging the tax breaks that are available now for 401(k)s and spreading – spreading the wealth” (emphasis mine).

However, as we painfully learned in the immediate aftermath of the original $700 million dollar bailout, which was originally sold on the basis that it would be used to pay off bad debt, governments that propose “spreading the wealth” under socialist-style financial reforms almost always collect the wealth under the pretext of being the saviors before greedily hoarding it all for themselves.

The GRA program is being pushed by the Economic Policy Institute, an organization housed on the third floor of the building occupied by the George Soros-funded Center for American Progress. The Center for American Progress is a think tank headed by Bill Clinton’s former chief of staff John D. Podesta, who was also head of Barack Obama’s presidential transition team after the 2008 election.

In preparing to seize private pensions, the United States is going the same way as Argentinean government, which in 2008 nationalized the country’s private pension plans, known as AFJPs, confiscating the wealth of millions.

“We have no doubt that here the right to private property is being violated. Not just for us but for society and the world, this is a clear confiscation,” said opposition Radical Party’s Ernesto Sanz at the time.

How will Americans react to having not only their wealth but their nest egg for future generations brazenly confiscated by the government in one fell swoop? If this doesn’t prompt widespread rioting and civil disobedience in America on behalf of the besieged middle class then nothing will.

Don’t be under any illusions, if you don’t have a private pension and think this won’t affect you – think again. Once the pretext has been created that the state can simply confiscate privately earned wealth, they can then come after anything, your gold, your home, your kids and eventually your very freedom. Once the vampire of big government gets a taste for blood, the teeth will only sink in further, and America’s resemblance to third world tyrannies will rapidly accelerate.

—

Paul Joseph Watson is the editor and writer for Prison Planet.com. He is the author of Order Out Of Chaos. Watson is also a fill-in host for The Alex Jones Show. Watson has been interviewed by many publications and radio shows, including Vanity Fair and Coast to Coast AM, America’s most listened to late night talk show.

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