Infinite Unknown

- Auditing The IRS: “Is There Any Limit To The Scope Where You Folks Can Go?” (ZeroHedge, May 18, 2013):

While it does have all the impromptu genuineness of a made for C-Span soap opera, the following exchange between Rep. Mile Kelly (PA) and the IRS’ commissioner Miller was the highlight of yesterday’s grilling of the IRS by the House Ways and Means committee, because rehearsed or not, it does capture the prevalent sentiment the US public harbors not only toward its tax collectors, but the government in general.”

The IRS can do almost anything they want to anybody they want any time they want. This is very chilling for the American people…. This is a Pandora’s box that has been opened. The American people should be outraged and they are. This has nothing to do with political parties – this has to do with highly targeted groups. This reconfirms everything that the American public believes. This is a huge blow to the faith and trust the American people have in their government. Is there any limit to the scope of where you folks can go? Is there there any question that you should have asked: how much money do you have in your wallet, who do you get emails from, whose sign do you put up in your front yard: this ia tax question? The fact that you all can do just about anything you want to anybody: you can put anybody out of business any time you want…. I think the American people have seen what’s going on right now in the their government. This is absolutely an overreach and this is an outrage for all Americans.“

And while contemplating these questions, let’s make government even bigger, and also why has that pesky Second amendment not been overturned yet?

Tags: Barack Obama, Global News, Government, IRS, Politics, Social Security, U.S.

- Obama seeks deal, proposes cuts to Social Security (AP, April 5, 2013):

WASHINGTON (AP) — Seeking an elusive middle ground, President Barack Obama is proposing a 2014 budget that embraces tax increases abhorred by Republicans as well as reductions, loathed by liberals, in the growth of Social Security and other benefit programs.

The plan, if ever enacted, could touch almost all Americans. The rich would see tax increases, the poor and the elderly would get smaller annual increases in their benefits, and middle income taxpayers would slip into higher tax brackets despite Obama’s repeated vows not to add to the tax burden of the middle class. His proposed changes, once phased in, would mean a cut in Social Security benefits of nearly $1,000 a year for an average 85-year-old, smaller cuts for younger retirees.

Continue reading »

Tags: Barack Obama, Global News, Government, Obama administration, Politics, Social Security, U.S.

- Chief Actuary for SS – Raid the Retirement Fund! (ZeroHedge, March 20, 2013):

Stephan Goss, the chief actuary for Social Security (SS) provided a detailed report on the status of the SS Disability Fund (DI) to the House of Representitives. The short story is that DI is going bust in a few years. The options to fix this problem were spelled out in the report. The extremes of the required “fix” range from an immediate cut in DI benefits of 16%, or an increase in DI payroll taxes of 20%.

Nothing new there. But, there is a “Plan B” for the DI Fund. The solution is to raid the SS Retirement Fund for the deficits at DI: Continue reading »

Tags: Barack Obama, Economy, Global News, Government, Obama administration, Politics, Social Security, U.S.

- Have Americans Given Up on Saving for Retirement? (TIME, March 7, 2013):

In the wake of the Great Recession, retirement-minded Americans are feeling an unprecedented amount of futility. They are undersaved and — worse — see little reason to do anything about it.

That’s the alarming conclusion in a new report from the Deloitte Center for Financial Services, which found that 60% of preretirees believe health care costs will consume their savings no matter how much they save. Similarly, 39% believe investment returns won’t be high enough to provide decent retirement income regardless of how much they manage to put away.

Deloitte found exasperation at every turn: 58% don’t have a retirement plan; nearly 40% don’t know what an annuity or mutual fund is; and 20% expect to rely purely on Social Security for their retirement needs. More than half don’t trust anyone’s advice.

Continue reading »

Tags: Collapse, Economy, Global News, Government, Politics, Retirement, Social Security, Society, U.S.

- Do You Want To Scare A Baby Boomer? (Economic Collapse, Jan 17, 2013):

If you want to frighten Baby Boomers, just show them the list of statistics in this article.  The United States is headed for a retirement crisis of unprecedented magnitude, and we are woefully unprepared for it.  At this point, more than 10,000 Baby Boomers are reaching the age of 65 every single day, and this will continue to happen for almost the next 20 years.  The number of senior citizens in America is projected to more than double during the first half of this century, and some absolutely enormous financial promises have been made to them.  So will we be able to keep those promises to the hordes of American workers that are rapidly approaching retirement?  Of course not.  State and local governments are facing trillions in unfunded pension liabilities.  Medicare is facing a 38 trillion dollar shortfall over the next 75 years.  The Social Security system is facing a 134 trillion dollar shortfall over the next 75 years.  Meanwhile, nearly half of all American workers have less than $10,000 saved for retirement.  The truth is that I was being incredibly kind when I said earlier that we are “woefully unprepared” for what is coming.  The biggest retirement crisis in history is rapidly approaching, and a lot of the promises that were made to the Baby Boomers are going to get broken.The following are 35 incredibly shocking statistics that will scare just about any Baby Boomer… Continue reading »

Tags: Collapse, Global News, Government, Pension, Politics, Poverty, Retirement, Social Security, U.S.

- The Social Security System Is Already Broke (ZeroHedge, Jan 12, 2013)

Tags: Collapse, Global News, Government, Politics, Social Security, Society, U.S.

- The Federal Government Hands Out Money To 128 Million Americans Every Month (Economic Collapse, Jan 10, 2013):

The number of Americans receiving money directly from the federal government has grown from 94 million in the year 2000 to over 128 million today.  A shocking new research paper by Patrick Tyrrell and William W. Beach contains that statistic and a whole bunch of other very revealing numbers.  According to their research, the federal government hands out money to 41.3 percent of the entire population of the United States each month.  Overall, more than 70 percent of all federal spending goes to what they call “dependence-creating programs”.  It is the most massive wealth redistribution scheme in the history of the world, and it continues to grow at a very rapid pace with each passing month.  But can we really afford this?  Of course we never want to see a single person go without food to eat or a roof to sleep under, but can the federal government really afford to support 128 million Americans every month?  If millions more Americans keep jumping on to the “safety net” each year, how long will it be before it breaks and it is not there for anyone?  The federal government is already drowning in debt.  This year the U.S. national debt will easily blow past the 17 trillion dollar mark and we are rapidly heading toward financial oblivion.  We are stealing more than 100 million dollars from our children and our grandchildren every single hour of every single day with no end in sight.  If we don’t get our finances in order as a nation, what will the end result be? Continue reading »

Tags: Barack Obama, Debt, Food stamps, Global News, Government, Medicaid, Medicare, Obama administration, Politics, Social Security, Society, U.S.

- An Hour In The Company Of Kyle Bass (ZeroHedge, Dec 19, 2012):

Last year’s AmeriCatalyst interview with Kyle Bass provided much more color than the normal 30-second soundbites that we are subjected to when serious hedge fund managers are exposed to mainstream media. This year, Bass was the keynote speaker and in the following speech (followed by Q&A), the fund manager provides 60 minutes of eloquence on the end of the grand experiment and its consequences. From Money Printing and Central Bank Balance sheets to Japan and the psychology of the current situation – which in many cases trumps the quantitative data – the question remains, “when will this unravel” as opposed to “if?”; Bass provides his fact-based heresy against the orthodoxy of economic thought “On The Financial Nature Of Things” extending well beyond his recent note. Must watch (there’s no football or X-Factor on tonight).

Make sure to stay tuned to the last 2 minutes when Kyle succinctly sums up our society…

YouTube

Tags: Banking, Barack Obama, Ben Bernanke, Bonds, Collapse, Debt, Dollar, Economy, EU, Europe, Fed, Federal Reserve, Financial Crisis, GDP, Germany, Global News, Government, Japan, Kyle Bass, Obama administration, Pension, Politics, Quantitative Easing, Retirement, Social Security, Society, U.S., War

From the WSJ article:

“The actual liabilities of the federal government—including Social Security, Medicare, and federal employees’ future retirement benefits—already exceed $86.8 trillion, or 550% of GDP. For the year ending Dec. 31, 2011, the annual accrued expense of Medicare and Social Security was $7 trillion. Nothing like that figure is used in calculating the deficit. In reality, the reported budget deficit is less than one-fifth of the more accurate figure.”

But wait it gets worse:

FLASHBACK:

- US National Debt At $14 Trillion? Try $211 Trillion!!! (NPR, August 6, 2011):

“If you add up all the promises that have been made for spending obligations, including defense expenditures, and you subtract all the taxes that we expect to collect, the difference is $211 trillion. That’s the fiscal gap,” he says. “That’s our true indebtedness.”

- Prof. Kotlikoff: ‘The US is bankrupt’, Government Debt At $200 Trillion – 840 Percent of Current GDP (The Globe And Mail, Oct 27, 2010):

Boston University economist Laurence Kotlikoff says U.S. government debt is not $13.5-trillion (U.S.), which is 60 per cent of current gross domestic product, as global investors and American taxpayers think, but rather 14-fold higher: $200-trillion – 840 per cent of current GDP. “Let’s get real,” Prof. Kotlikoff says. “The U.S. is bankrupt.”

And again, prepare for total collapse.

- Cox and Archer: Why $16 Trillion Only Hints at the True U.S. Debt (Wall Street Journal, Nov 26, 2012):

Hiding the government’s liabilities from the public makes it seem that we can tax our way out of mounting deficits. We can’t.

A decade and a half ago, both of us served on President Clinton’s Bipartisan Commission on Entitlement and Tax Reform, the forerunner to President Obama’s recent National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform. In 1994 we predicted that, unless something was done to control runaway entitlement spending, Medicare and Social Security would eventually go bankrupt or confront severe benefit cuts.

Eighteen years later, nothing has been done. Why? The usual reason is that entitlement reform is the third rail of American politics. That explanation presupposes voter demand for entitlements at any cost, even if it means bankrupting the nation.

A better explanation is that the full extent of the problem has remained hidden from policy makers and the public because of less than transparent government financial statements. How else could responsible officials claim that Medicare and Social Security have the resources they need to fulfill their commitments for years to come? Continue reading »

Tags: Bonds, Collapse, Debt, Economy, Global News, Government, Medicare, Politics, Social Security, U.S.

- Judge Napolitano on Social Security: ‘If It’s Not a Ponzi Scheme, I Don’t Know What Is’ (FOX News, Oct 17, 2012):

The cost of living increase for Social Security recipients will go up by 1.7% next year, one of the smallest jumps since the automatic adjustment for inflation was adopted in 1975.Never hesitant to express a strong opinion on the role of the federal government, Judge Andrew Napolitano weighed in on the current state of the Social Security system this morning on Fox Business Network.

First going back through the history of the Social Security law, Napolitano said, “The money that is deducted from our pay here every week is spent immediately by the federal government. But the money that is paid to our parents and grandparents is borrowed. So, if that’s not a Ponzi scheme, I don’t know what is.”

The judge credited Rep. Paul Ryan for at least addressing the unsustainability of the current system in his budget proposal.

He summed up the state of the entitlement system and the tough decisions that will eventually have to be made by saying, “There are too many people dependent on the federal government and now the federal government is about to run out of cash. What do we do?”

Tags: Andrew Napolitano, Global News, Government, Politics, Ponzi schemes, Social Security, Society, U.S.