Friday, May 07, 2010

Like Your 401(k)? So Does Obama, But in a Different Way

Ruh roh.

...the Obama White House, together with the Departments of Labor and Treasury, issued a so-called "Request for Information" calling for a detailed analysis of the pros and cons of the "annuitization" of individual 401(k)s. The scheme was set forth in a set of "Proposed Rules" published on February 2, 2010 in the Federal Register.

The document reads in part, "While defined contribution plans have some strengths relative to defined benefit plans, participants in defined contribution plans bear the investment risk because there is no promise by the employer as to the adequacy of the account balance that will be available or the income stream that can be provided after retirement." And furthermore, "The Agencies are considering whether it would be appropriate for them to take future steps for them to facilitate access to, and use of, lifetime income or other arrangements designed to provide designed to provide a stream of income after retirement."

We'd mentioned several months ago that the Obamunists have designs on your 401(k).

Moonbattery's take?

Look for instability in the stock market like yesterday's sudden plunge to be exploited as cover for the greatest robbery of all time, the $multitrillion heist of every American's retirement account. But don't worry, Big Government will dole some of the money back to you at its discretion, assuming the program doesn't go bankrupt like Social Security soon will.

November cannot possibly happen soon enough.

5 comments:

Dominick O Maolain said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Disgruntled Car Salesman said...

Over my dead body.

Beer, Bicycles and the VRWC said...

Looks like Dom mighta posted a no-no.

I've been calling this one for about 30 years now. Maybe for different reasons (I thought they would use it to prop up social Security...and maybe they will).

Torches and Pitchforks.

Jim said...

For the past 40 years give or take, businesses have transferred the risk of pensions from themselves to their workers. Used to be almost all pensions were defined benefits. No need for worker to worry about market risk. Now, the risk is all on the worker. 2008-9 comes along and half their retirement is gone. No sweat for their employer.

The way I'm reading this, the administration is looking into adding an investment option that allows workers to invest some of their money that would go into a 401(k) into a defined benefit plan or annuity. Looks optional to me. And if you could lock in an income stream from part of your retirement, why wouldn't you?

Dad29 said...

Gee.

The way YOU read this, Obama is following in the footsteps of Paul Ryan.

In which case, he ought to credit the man.

But I don't worry too much about YOUR read. After you've attained the age of majority, you'll understand that a little skepticism gets you further in life.