AMERICAblog: $2 trillion in retirement savings wiped out
therepguy
· 1 year ago
And Bush/McCain wanted us to invest our social security money in the stock market... that was a fun idea!
Oop's McCain and company still want to get there hands on our social security... doesn't he?
Bubbles
· 1 year ago
It's sunset on the Reagan revolution. Finally.
It seems likely, that after this is all drawn out, and assuming Obama can win next month, that come January 20th, and there after, there is going to be a global out cry against Republican supply-side/laissez-faire economics.
Consider that this combination gave the WORLD the Great Depression, Hitler, Militarized Japan, WWII and the Holocaust last time and today threatens unknown but similar gravity infront of us.
After all this is through the world is not going to let Republican economics emerge here ever again, even if we in the United States were to be dumb enough to (and we all know that we are).
I predict a coming global alliance aimed at dealing with a future Republican United States. Those policies are the past. We aren't likely to embrace them again, but even if we do, it seems likely that the outside world, who have borne a huge price for our Republican party's economic policies in the past, is not going to sit still and say "please sir, can I have some more."
If we don't create structural impairments to Republican economic policies and Neocon rule, it seems highly likely that the outside world will get to work at organizing itself to ensure that we do. If we are lucky, it will be lead by the Europeans. If we are unlucky it will be lead by the Chinese.
FunMe
· 1 year ago
I am hoping that when Obama becomes US President next month, that we progressive/liberals/independents/Democrats ensure we NEVER go back to having the repuliCONs ruin our country and the world ever again. We must fight them always,
I'm hoping with Internet politics, we will hold accountable our representatives, even the Democrats, so that NeoCon are a species destroyed forever.
BarrieT
· 1 year ago
Yes, and we'll start by recognizing an independent Alaska to deprive you of your 'indigenous' oil. ;-)
DCinDC
· 1 year ago
Let us think of this economic crisis in a different way. Say that you had a $10 bill sitting on the top of your kitchen table and your so-called “friend” came to visit your house that day. After your “friend” leaves immediately you notice your $10 is gone. The $10 bill went somewhere and it just didn’t disappear on its on. Your “friend” took it!
Now think of this whole loss on the stock market, plus the no bids government contracts, the trillion-dollar deficit, etc. as your $10 bill that “disappeared.” Money just doesn’t disappear like that. Someone walked home with your money off the kitchen table. The question becomes who? Follow the money!
Notice how everyone just tries to say it was a paper loss? But behind some of the paper there is also real money. Real money that is missing from the United States treasury and from the stock markets! Who is getting rich while the United States goes down? That is the real question that needs to be asked. Where did the trillions of dollars go and who is holding the bag with all of the loot?
BarrieT
· 1 year ago
These bail-outs remind me of the Martingale system that gamblers like McCain are taken in by. Every time you lose, just increase the next bet so that the win covers all your previous losses. Hey presto, can't lose - provided you have an infinite supply of money and don't hit a table limit.
PissedSissy
· 1 year ago
This is precisely why we need regulations that separate retirement funds from the market. We MUST stop the rich from taking their "OPM" (other people's money) strategy to extremes - make them keep their hands OFF social security and individual retirement funds. If they want to gamble, MAKE THEM USE THEIR OWN MONEY.
blakey
· 1 year ago
$1 trillion strong armed from U.S. taxpayers with an assist from John and Chris and still the DOW goes down? Maybe there's better ways to help the economy and protect 401ks than by handing over blank checks to the very crooks who robbed us in the first place.
Indigo
· 1 year ago
There is no bounce-back here. Japan, as Chris points out, has not ever recovered but spiralled, instead, into a revolving door government with rotating Prime Ministers. Their problem is that the Showa traditions were buried with the Showa Emperor. Japan is no longer traditional Japan, it's a cheesey run on sparkly things. That reminds us of what . . . Reaganitis? Bubbles is right, it's sunset on the Reagan Revolution. This correction is deep and necessary and overdue.
naschkatzehussein
· 1 year ago
That's why we as seniors for the past few years have made very little interest on our savings. We have to play conservative because we don't have twenty to forty years ahead of us to recoup when the markets go south.
SCLiberal
· 1 year ago
The money wasn't "lost". It wound up in someone's pocket. It was stolen.
mckathiki
· 1 year ago
Almost 10 years ago, I left a decent paying job with an international manufacturing corporation so my husband and I could move back to Texas to care for my mother, a military widow with Stage 4 ovarian cancer. Her prognosis was grim but we wanted to give our best shot to her. We had over $30,000 savings, a new truck, and a mountain property and I had a 401k and the chance to COBRA my family's health insurance. My company failed to meet its obligation during the COBRA transition so we lost the health coverage and were unable to secure individual policy due to "pre-existing" conditions; our savings petered away quickly on full price prescription medication for those conditions; my mother had an amazing turnaround when she had loved ones, including a granddaughter living with her, so we traded in the truck at a loss and took care of her for 6 years. The 401k was cashed in along the way because well paid work is hard to come by in this part of Texas and we sold our property on an installment plan, eventually losing big time when the buyers paid us off (appraisal went from $60,000 to $180,000 in 7 years). My husband has COPD but doesn't qualify for SS disability because he always worked construction and was paid in cash. We homeschool our daughter because the public school system leaves every child behind by promoting mediocrity. We work all the time and make less than $27,000 per year; our daughter is on CHIP and the only health care we have is our own herbal treatment; we have no savings, live in a crappy apartment and from paycheck to paycheck. Our story is no worse than many and there are many who have stories worse than ours. My point is: I have often wondered if we should have denied my mother care; stayed back east with a good corporate job, benefits, a home and retirement. Now I know we made the right decision because our consciences are clear, our work is honest and our life is simple. Besides, chances are, if we had stayed, we would have lost everything anyway. And that is a damnable shame to be laid directly at the door of the current administration and its obstructionist supporters. It is past time to take back our country and bring to justice the criminals who have gambled people's life savings away and the "regulators" who allowed it to happen.
ComradeRutherford
· 1 year ago
Wow. Your situation clearly outlines the failures of conservatism. You are living the Conservative version of the American Dream.
mckathiki
· 1 year ago
Yes. My father was in combat for 3 years during WWII and served his country during the Cold War as a missile/radar specialist until the 1970's. He was a life long Democrat because Roosevelt saved our country but then he got old and scared at the close of Vietnam and turned to the Republicans. He thought he had guaranteed the American Dream for his children but he and millions of others blew it when they bought the carefully contrived arguments of the "Conservatives". Conservatism is only about conserving the status quo for the elite and has never been about average Americans: veterans, workers, women, children and minorities. They dressed up in red, white and blue and millions fell for it for awhile but take a look at where we've fallen.
My father raised this woman to be an independent patriot who believes in the original American dream and I will fight to take back my country and move it into the future, where it can't be about borders, countries, flags, gods and whose the best anymore. It has to be about the world - our world and what we are going to contribute to its continued existence.
ComradeRutherford
· 1 year ago
But that wasn't real money anyway. It was imaginary 'paper' that never existed in any tangible form.
All Comments
Oop's McCain and company still want to get there hands on our social security... doesn't he?
It seems likely, that after this is all drawn out, and assuming Obama can win next month, that come January 20th, and there after, there is going to be a global out cry against Republican supply-side/laissez-faire economics.
Consider that this combination gave the WORLD the Great Depression, Hitler, Militarized Japan, WWII and the Holocaust last time and today threatens unknown but similar gravity infront of us.
After all this is through the world is not going to let Republican economics emerge here ever again, even if we in the United States were to be dumb enough to (and we all know that we are).
I predict a coming global alliance aimed at dealing with a future Republican United States. Those policies are the past. We aren't likely to embrace them again, but even if we do, it seems likely that the outside world, who have borne a huge price for our Republican party's economic policies in the past, is not going to sit still and say "please sir, can I have some more."
If we don't create structural impairments to Republican economic policies and Neocon rule, it seems highly likely that the outside world will get to work at organizing itself to ensure that we do. If we are lucky, it will be lead by the Europeans. If we are unlucky it will be lead by the Chinese.
I'm hoping with Internet politics, we will hold accountable our representatives, even the Democrats, so that NeoCon are a species destroyed forever.
Now think of this whole loss on the stock market, plus the no bids government contracts, the trillion-dollar deficit, etc. as your $10 bill that “disappeared.” Money just doesn’t disappear like that. Someone walked home with your money off the kitchen table. The question becomes who? Follow the money!
Notice how everyone just tries to say it was a paper loss? But behind some of the paper there is also real money. Real money that is missing from the United States treasury and from the stock markets! Who is getting rich while the United States goes down? That is the real question that needs to be asked. Where did the trillions of dollars go and who is holding the bag with all of the loot?
It was stolen.
during the Cold War as a missile/radar specialist until the 1970's. He was
a life long Democrat because Roosevelt saved our country but then he got old
and scared at the close of Vietnam and turned to the Republicans. He
thought he had guaranteed the American Dream for his children but he and
millions of others blew it when they bought the carefully contrived
arguments of the "Conservatives". Conservatism is only about conserving the
status quo for the elite and has never been about average Americans:
veterans, workers, women, children and minorities. They dressed up in red,
white and blue and millions fell for it for awhile but take a look at where
we've fallen.
My father raised this woman to be an independent patriot who believes in the
original American dream and I will fight to take back my country and move it
into the future, where it can't be about borders, countries, flags, gods and
whose the best anymore. It has to be about the world - our world and what
we are going to contribute to its continued existence.