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NEWS AND VIEWS THAT IMPACT LIMITED CONSTITUTIONAL GOVERNMENT

"There is danger from all men. The only maxim of a free government ought to be to trust no man living with
power to endanger the public liberty." - - - - John Adams

Saturday, January 14, 2012

Pension plans nationalized by Government

Governments are lining up to steal the pension funds of their citizens in order to buy votes for the next election.


“This is effectively a nationalization of private pension funds.  It’s the nightmare scenario.”

- - - David Nemeth, an economist at ING Groep NV in Budapest


The avalanche of failing Socialist governments in Europe has set off an orgy of looting with legislators acting to seize European taxpayer savings and pension accounts to cover the governments’ bills.  The thought of cutting spend never enters into the heads of Socialists.

Is the United States next?  Will 401k and other accounts be looted by Big Government Socialists?

The seizure of pension accounts is easily accomplished in Europe.

Take Hungary, last month they made a deal with its citizens, either hand over all their savings to the government or lose all their state pension money. Adding insult to injury, citizens must still pay into those defunct accounts Reports the San Diego Examiner.

According to Christian Science Monitor, “The government wants to gain control over $14 billion of individual retirement accounts.”

“This is effectively a nationalization of private pension funds,” David Nemeth, an economist at ING Groep NV in Budapest, said in a phone interview. “It’s the nightmare scenario.”   (Bloomberg News)

In Hungary, employers set aside 24 percent of each worker’s salary for pension contributions and employees are required to pay 10 percent. Forcing workers back into the state system means the government will retain control of all that money, rather than transferring a portion to the private funds.




ARGENTINA  -  EU nations are following the example of Argentina, which in 2001 confiscated about $3.2 billion of pension savings before the country stopped servicing its debt. The government in Buenos Aires nationalized the $24 billion industry two years ago to compensate for falling tax revenue after a 2005 debt restructuring.

BULGARIA  -  “The Bulgarian government has come up with a similar idea,” CSM said. “An additional $300 million of private early retirement savings was supposed to be transferred to the state pension scheme. The government gave way after trade unions protested and finally only about 20 percent of the original plans were implemented.”

POLAND  -  Poland is another country on the brink and wants to confiscate approximately one-third of the state-run Social Security program which adds up to $2.3 billion per year. The newly imposed program hopes to bridge the financial gap for several years while leaving retirees with empty pockets.

IRELAND  -  Ireland, who has made front page news in the U.S. for disgruntled taxpayers, will also raid the National Pension Reserve Fund. The fund was supposed to provide retirement money for workers who need a pension in the years 2025-2050.

PORTUGAL  -  The Portuguese Cabinet agreed to transfer the assets from four of the country’s biggest banks to the government treasury, in order to “bridge” a yawning budget gap that threatens to bankrupt the nation.  Portuguese government officials “assured” the European Union that the transfer of the life savings of Portuguese citizens would only be a one-time occurrence.   (Infowars)

FRANCE  -  The final example is France. In November, the French parliament decided to earmark €33bn from the national reserve pension fund FRR to reduce the short-term pension scheme deficit. In this way, the retirement savings intended for the years 2020-2040 will be used earlier, that is in the years 2011-2024, and the government will spend the saved up resources on other purposes.  (The Christian Science Monitor)

“It’s unprecedented in Europe that a government is threatening to kick its own citizens out of the state pension system,” Zoltan Torok, a Budapest-based economist at Raiffeisen Bank International AG, said in a phone interview. “It’s probably enough to ensure that no one is going to stay in the private pension fund system in his or her right mind.”
(San Diego Examiner)

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