I've been hearing all the gloom and doom about Autos and Banks but what about Retirement Accounts? If you think about it, the public has been encouraged to invest in 401Ks, IRAs, and others since sometime in 1987 I believe. All the while employers have been reducing or eliminating their contributions. Employer contributions aside, What are these accounts vested in? The research I've been able to come up with says that the vast majority of these funds are 68% Mutual Funds and 14% "Other Equities". I've been paying into my Union Carpenters Pension Fund for 12 years now. I called them up last week and asked how I could get a look at what "WE were invested in". I was politely told that it was none of my business. Considering the current value of Mutual Funds and the huge number of Baby-Boomers ready to collect, What's next? I'm I the only one thinking this way?
All these folks who have stocks in their 401ks have to retire someday and they will move out of stocks. We are already seeing the effects with so many folks having moved out already. I honestly donât know who will be buying what they sell for the next decade.
Nationalization is a politically accepted way of saying Socialism. As Margret Thatcher once said: The only problem with Socialism is that eventually you will run out of everybody else's money.
It's rather simple -- retirement will have to be delayed. What is going to happen when baby boomers begin collecting social security? What is going to happen when new jobs can't be rolled out because retirees still occupy them? What is going to happen when employment continues to rise and Credit Card Defaults rise? What's going to happen when the next wave of ARMs reset? What's going to happen when inflation kicks back in? What's going to happen when taxes are raised to pay down the massive national debt? There's plenty of shoes still out there that haven't dropped. We're basically fucked.