Are you willing to give up your pension and 401(k)?
It felt like a veil had been lifted from my eyes and I had a totally new understanding of people and events pushing the levers of government when I first listened to Catherine Austin Fitts explain how trillions of dollars were sucked out of the US economy by an organized crime syndicate consisting of government and big banks.
The next step must be to root out all of the greed and lawlessness, right?
Fitts advises that we think carefully before we charge in and root out the evil. First of all, a whole bunch of the toxic investment vehicles are still sitting in people's pension plans; rooting them out will suck even more value out of the plans, leaving many unable to retire. Secondly, the illegal activities of the major banks, such as laundering money for drug cartels and so on, fund the US federal government. If the US banks don't handle the money, it will go to other countries and the US won't have the funds for public programs. Are you willing to slash public programs even further?
Thinking that cutting expenditures on Defense will help solve the problem? I did. Not so fast, says Fitts. What makes the American dollar pre-eminent in the world is the fact that the US Navy controls the shipping lanes and the US military is keeping everyone else in line. Slash the Defense budget and the US dollar goes into freefall.
I found this interview pretty depressing, frankly. However, as bitter as the truth is to swallow, I feel that it is important to understand how all of the pieces fit together. And she doesn't accept any moaning or whining about the situation and who has or hasn't done anything about it.
She admonishes us to do something about the things we don't like. Don't like the Big Banks? Don't use them. Find alternative ways to invest at the community level to create prosperity and buy-in at the community level. For Fitts, this has to start as a grassroots movement, not by jailing all the bankers.
Whatever happens in this election, community-based action to change the financial system has to be part of the plan. This video is well worth watching to get ideas about where to start.
Comments
I saw this
Now that I'm not hanging out and wasting my time drinking Kos Koolaid, I have been revisiting a lot of sites I used to go to regularly on the internet. There is some amazing stuff going on (not in a good way) that is like a giant interlocking leggo construct of global corruptions and interactions that are mind boggling. I am book marking a lot of stuff and I think I might start writing a series called "Breadcrumbs" because a link in one article takes you to a link in another article and then all of a sudden the pieces of the puzzle fill in.
Anyway I did tumble onto Catherine Austen Fitts this week and this was one of my bookmarks. Thanks for drawing people's attention to it. We are all basically home schooling ourselves since the MSM of television and corporate media is NOT going to do it. I hope more people will start to post about news and events outside of the world of politics (although politics is the enabler) to see the RESULTS of the policies that are being promulgated.
Anyway, back to your topic which is focused on banking and IRAs and pensions. A few things:
Post Office banking as has been suggested by Elizabeth Warren and others is a great idea. Basically a non-profit place to cash checks, make deposits, etc. This is actually a very old idea and practice made new again. It's a heck of a lot better than payday lenders and places that charge to cash a paycheck, or open a passbook savings account.
Investments, IRAs, etc. - Notice how banks don't pay interest on savings anymore? That is a good place to start. When my now deceased in-laws retired in the nineties, they were able to maintain their savings in long term CDs that paid 9% believe it or not. If you read turn of the century novels, people were counting on a 3% safe return from their savings and bonds. But now, the American public has almost no place to put their money in a "safe" investment that gives any type of adequate return. They are FORCED to enter the casino we call the stock market.
A long time ago when I started investing, I read The Motley Fool as my bible. They said save regularly and invest in an S&P index fund as a safe savigs vehicle and most importantly of all BUY AND HOLD. So, I did. And I did okay for a while. And then I noticed that my account was pretty much a case of 2 steps forward and 2 steps back and in reality my account was pretty static or flat overall. The only reason my balance was growing was because I was pumping up the balance by re-investing the dividends (such as they were) and more importantly by making new contributions. There was one point when I was doing the S&P index when it became clear to me that if a person put in 10K and returned 10 years later they would still have 10k! They could have gotten the same return by burying the money in a coffee can in their back yard.
So then I realized that something was clearly wrong and I was being played. I had an epiphany that I was the "dumb money" that bought and held to provide a foundation so that the "smart money" could buy and sell and market time and TAKE PROFITS. I then understood that a profit is not a profit until you realize it and TAKE it; otherwise it's just a figure on a digital spreadsheet.
I became a much more informed investor and I read stuff like marketwatch and zero hedge and naked capitalism and other money sites and tried to watch the different swaths of the markets and I began going in and moving my 401K allocations around - something most people don't do. When precious metals and mining were going up I was in. When international stocks were on the upturn I was there. I got out of stocks and almost entirely into bonds at a really good time. I did all of this in my own 401K by myself and at one point I had a 26% annual return. I had no particular financial training or expertise. This was not day trading either. I wasn't churning my own account, I re balanced as needed. My company stock which was their contribution to my 401K was a complete dog which dragged down my whole portfolio. My online account let you get your overall return and then your total return which included the company match. The 26% figure I mentioned above was me on my own, when the company stock was included it went down to single digits. So I dug deep into the 401K prospectus and I discovered and I could even move my company stock around after it had vested. BUT the online platform did not allow for that transfer. I called up the 401 K administrator/HR person and asked how I could do this. She said I was the only person in the history of the company to ask that question and she didn't think it could be done. So I read to her the sentence from the prospectus that said it could be done. It ended up I had to call the 401K company and submit a written request for them to make the transfer, which I did.
Sorry to be so long-winded, but here is my final point. At some point you should withdraw some of your profits/savings and put it into something SAFE even a crappy CD, just to protect the principle. In a 401K that might be moving it to the money market position in a time of high volatility or bonds. Don't worry, you can move it back. I always thought that US savings bonds and/or Tbills should be an option in 401Ks but they almost never are. Ask your plan administrator for more options! It can be done.
This is all my opinion - I am NOT a financial professional, this is just what I learned on my own as a serf. Please feel free to correct me about any point I have made with a more informed viewpoint.
" “Human kindness has never weakened the stamina or softened the fiber of a free people. A nation does not have to be cruel to be tough.” FDR "
Credit unions can be great
They can be and usually are.
Just make sure they are Federally insured. Rhode Island had a credit union meltdown in the nineties because most of the credit unions in the state were state insured. A very rinky dink embezzlement at a single credit union brought the whole facade down on the heads of the members of the unions. It was quite a fiasco
" “Human kindness has never weakened the stamina or softened the fiber of a free people. A nation does not have to be cruel to be tough.” FDR "
I guess. Remember "Move Your Money"?
When the market crashed and I lost a third of my 401K only to see the bankers get not only a bailout but fucking bonuses, I got mad. I re-allocated what was left of my 401K into a money-market account because fuck them. I took my checking and savings accounts, such as they were, out of a commercial bank and put them into a credit union, because fuck those guys too.
Later, when my Mom passed away, I got part of the proceeds for the sale of her house and squirreled that away in savings. It was the first time in my life that I had anything that could be described as a nest egg.
Though my new credit-union savings account had five figures in it, the interest was still only $0.21 each month, or about one Frappuccino a year. So, while I still wasn't getting any interest on my accounts, I was able to take some small comfort in the fact that it's the local CU that's making the profit off my deposits, and not some Wall Street fat cat.
When Husband and I bought our house, we chose to make a much larger than normal down payment: all our savings went into the house. It's a modest but newish home in a pleasant neighborhood that still has green spaces. We're taking excellent care of our little investment, and we anticipate that it will appreciate faster than any savings account could, at least for the foreseeable future.
Buying a house, and paying it off as fast as possible, also allows us to pay less interest to the bank, because fuck them.
In the event of an emergency, sometime in the future, we'll have the option of a home equity loan since we're not upside-down now, and barring unforseen illness/injury/death, we won't be in the future either. *knocks wood* But we'll only take out another loan if we're truly desperate, and the cash in our mattress has run out.
Just kidding -- it's not in the mattress. But it's not in the bank either! Because ... well, you know.
When you tear out a man's tongue, you are not proving him a liar; you are only telling the world that you fear what he might say.
I just cashed out my IRA, too late
I had consolidated. 2 funds,one of which was a dog into one that was booming in Health S
Sciences and in two months lost 25% on paper and was back to start. So into my credit union savings account. Now I can pay the feds for my underestimate on withholding.
Hey! my dear friends or soon-to-be's, JtC could use the donations to keep this site functioning for those of us who can still see the life preserver or flotsam in the water.
I am seriously tempted to do this.
Cash out the retirement accounts, take the tax hit, and sink the money into our house. It WILL increase in value; and I certainly haven't been able to say the same for my retirement savings in a very long time.
When you tear out a man's tongue, you are not proving him a liar; you are only telling the world that you fear what he might say.
So we either we stop killing people or we keep our
401k's? I call bullshit on that. Fitts runs an investment firm, of course she doesn't want the game to end. No, the crimes of Wall Street and U.S. imperialism have to be stopped. I agree we're all in effect beholden to these systems, we benefit as Americans from our ruling class raping and pillaging the earth, but morally that is not excuse for not trying to stop the crimes.
Hell, half the country, literally, is too poor to even think about 401K's and pensions are going the way of the dodo bird. All the wealth is going to the top now, most Americans are not benefiting any longer. We all need to stop participating in many of these things, but that doesn't excuse us from seeking justice against the crime mafia at the top.
Yeah, the whole premise of
Yeah, the whole premise of this diary is revolting. Screw the poor. Screw the rest of the world. My little 401(k) is at risk!? Let the banks keep at their fraud!
First of all, it's not true. All this illegal activity makes my retirement less, not more, secure. A house of cards is not going to stand forever. If we care about our nest eggs, we should demand more transparency and less fraud from the institutions playing with our money.
Second, even if it were true that rooting out the rot and corruption made my retirement less secure, I would still be for it. Maybe the next generation will thank us enough to take care of us in our old age.
"Well done is better than well said." - Ben Franklin
To be clear, I wasn't advocating Fitts position
in fact I think it is a shocking admission of how rotten to the core things are in our financial system.
And I agree with you. If the system is this corrupt, let it go down. Part of the point of my reply was how incredibly important the "sucker money" in the IRAs and 401Ks is to holding up the system. It's the Buy and Hold (the Bag) money. The big plan is trying to figure out how to move our government retirement accounts (SS) into this sector as well as the 401Ks so that there's still more money to scoop and fleece. It's not enough that they have MOST of the money in the world, they want ALL the money in the world.
" “Human kindness has never weakened the stamina or softened the fiber of a free people. A nation does not have to be cruel to be tough.” FDR "
Empires inevitably fail because, inevitably, the cost of
enforcing the Empire exceeds the economic benefit of the Empire.
But the Imperialists will keep the game running for as long as they can push those costs onto the mass of the people.
The earth is a multibillion-year-old sphere.
The Nazis killed millions of Jews.
On 9/11/01 a Boeing 757 (AA77) flew into the Pentagon.
AGCC is happening.
If you cannot accept these facts, I cannot fake an interest in any of your opinions.
There will be pain....
IF we want to change things...we have to accept the FACT that there will be sacrifices to be made...painful sacrifices. Change is ALWAYS painful. Just like growing pains. Not one of the Founding Fathers came out of the Revolution with their wealth, health, or families intact. I am not suggesting it will get that bad, but something JFK said has been echoing in my mind of late...
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Till then, of course, I plan on being a Pirate!
You know... respectable exterior, but doing all my crimes behind a deniable alias!
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMhfbLRoGEw]
I do not pretend I know what I do not know.
Aye, Matey! n/t
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You want us to embrace our masochism that would
accept that pain? Hell no.
If that was directed at me...
No...not embrace the pain... but know it is coming IF you want things to change.
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You have to stop and think about the stock market itself
People think that the stock market is about companies making things. The stock market is about companies making money on the price of their shares, the fact that they make things or provide a service or a product is just the cover story that gets them into the marketplace in order to peddle the shares which is where the real money is made. Not that it's easy to become publicly traded, you have to have a good product and/or game plan to even get to that point - I'm just saying that once you go public the whole game changes and mutates into another game entirely.
The stock market is a big casino where people bet on future outcomes of whether a group of stocks or a particular stock will go up or go down. The smart money is not investing in a car manufacturer, they are betting on whether the share of the car manufacturer will bounce up or down in the charts.
" “Human kindness has never weakened the stamina or softened the fiber of a free people. A nation does not have to be cruel to be tough.” FDR "
I learned about the stock market by seeing how this works
You said:
I once worked in a start-up company that was working on developing a new software product in the area of medical imaging, it was classified as a medical device by the FDA because it was going to be used to share high-res images of x-rays, MRIs, sonograms, etc. among specialists in remote locations. This was an early idea of what is now commonplace, called telemedicine. But in the mid to late 1990s, that seemed like quite a visionary concept! I was hired at a pretty good rate (as an independent contractor, so no benefits) to work in a communications group tasked with developing user guides, service manuals, online help systems, and marketing collateral. The last item turned out to be the real product that this company made -- little did any of us know at the time.
The company had been formed by a small group of private owners/investors, which included radiologists and other doctors and some MBA types, who were now paid well as the executive leadership, CEO, CFO, etc. Their job was to sell the idea to other investors and bring in money to help develop the product.
We had rudimentary software that they had bought out from some other tech startup who had started this project but were unable to make it work. (The technology just wasn't there at the time to accomplish the technical goals and specs.) The developers and engineering team, who I worked closely with, all told me on many occasions that this was "vaporware" -- the product the company was "selling" was not something that could actually work, anytime soon. They were updating the interface, making it look more slick, and adding buttons for "planned features" that were not actually real.
We developed documentation based on the specs because there was no working version. We also created video "demos" that looked *awesome* and impressive. These were marketing collateral -- created to show what our product was going to do -- so it was all faked, er, I mean... simulated... to show the functionality as it would be when it was ready. This disclaimer was made as tiny and inconspicuous as possible. Ship dates were tentative, but probably next year. um hum...
So this went on until we actually shipped an early version, which did a few things like allow the user to store and sort images in a file system... yawn... but it was a milestone to actually have a product. They had done a great job convincing some clinics and doctors that this was cutting edge and going to be the next big thing and offered steep discounts for customers willing to buy in early and help with testing and improvements. So we had income from product sales, and a great looking plan. Now was the time for the IPO.
As a lowly tech writer and editor I was not very involved in that stage. Only I knew from my friends in development that it was still vaporware. The marketing guys kept making big promises that they had no way to deliver. It was all going to crash and burn. We thought they were just nuts.
Actually, they had a plan all along. They did the IPO and sold stocks, lots and lots of them. And they made a shit-ton of money. And then within a year or so they "sadly" faced the realization that their vision was too visionary, and it was technically not feasible... and the company went under. Dissolved. And all those investors lost their money. Oops. The group who had set this up made a killing. It was stunning as an employee to see that I had been playing a part in a very long and well thought out con game. It was like that movie The Sting, only much more elaborate.
That was an education for me, no doubt. I have never put money into the stock market or bought into 401k's or any of that. I have no trust in any of it. A literal Confidence game is exactly what it is.
top comment ! Thanks. /nt
Executives get bonuses based on the stock price
So they're having their companies borrow lots of almost free money & use it to buy back their own stock shares, which runs the stock price up. And they lay off lots of people so they can't produce well, which also runs the stock price up (cutting costs!).
Eventually the company goes under because it owes more than it's worth, and its quality is gone, but the executives take their booty and run.
and I don't play in casinos with my hard earned pennies /nt
It is making money on money... n/t
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I am concerned about virtual money.
If we move to virtual money, exclusively, the powers that be know of every penny in your possession and can thus be taxed, etc. Let's keep cash and coins viable. Just my take.
"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11
Trade goods?
What might other people need & not be able to get (that stores well & isn't too bulky)?
Every woman should be taught to always
ALWAYS have a stash... My grandmother taught me that. Came in handy when I left an abusive husband. I also collect pre 1965 silver coins...
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Exactly!
I always have a stash.
"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11
Chips in every card, a card
Chips in every card, a card in every wallet.
With their hearts they turned to each others heart for refuge
In troubled years that came before the deluge
*Jackson Browne, 1974, Before the Deluge https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7SX-HFcSIoU
ah man, forget the shit, even what Phoebe Loosinhouse was
advising is way too complicated for the average guy. I never had much of a 401K, but the little I had, I first put in a CD, which helped me not losing the principal, but not gaining anything either. Flat. Now I "invested" into something that is supposedly safe. My "financial advisor" wasn't able to explain to me what I invested it into. I felt a pity for him, as he believed in what he was selling me. I didn't care. It was not that much money that I wanted to lose sleep over it. Turns out that I need that money, so I will surrender that shit and pay penalties, huge penalties. Last time I invested into anything.
I trust in my tin foil hat covered coffee can, buried in my not yet bought own piece of land and dig me my gold somewhere there as well. You know. Be smart. I am dumb. I am not going to waste my time into investments that take 14 pages of explanations to convince you what they are, what they will do and why they are good for you and safe.
KISS, keep it simple stupid. Because I am stupid and that's the only thing that can convince me.
I am not pro stock market
My amateur advice was for people who do have company 401Ks, etc. Most people get into a 401K because of the company match. If a company doesn't match, there is no earthly reason to be in a 401K as opposed to an IRA unless you plan to contribute more than the $5,000 IRA limit. The 401K limit is 18,000 and you can put it in the money market fund if you want to keep it almost in a cash position.
If someone just wants to save safely it's pretty much CDs and there is always good old American savings bonds. They are safe and easy to buy and easy to liquidate. There are no more physical bonds anymore, it's an online account with the government at TreasuryDirect.gov.
" “Human kindness has never weakened the stamina or softened the fiber of a free people. A nation does not have to be cruel to be tough.” FDR "
Sorry to go overboard with my wording
I am not anti- or pro stock market. I once invested in one single stock (Redhat the unix webserver software) and was actually amazed I made a profit. Otherwise I have no money to invest into anything else than annuities to help me have enough retirement income. So far I haven't lost anything and made modest increases. I just generally find it too complicated to do all the research of which stock in your 401 k one should change. It's more laziness and I remember that none of our employees really went into checking out which stocks they should change and which ones not. So I am no exception in that. It was encouraged to do so by our employer's accountant, but nobody really did. All I am complaining about is that it is too complicated for most people to do the things you described.
I remember fondly the times you could get still 6 - 7 % interests on a simple savings or money market account. That's over for quite a while and all those negative interests is just beyond my comprehension.
I didn't mind a bit
and didn't take your comment at all personally.
" “Human kindness has never weakened the stamina or softened the fiber of a free people. A nation does not have to be cruel to be tough.” FDR "
Consider investing in THINGS that will pay off
What are your major bills now?
If it's heat/cooling: insulation, a wood stove and source of wood, tools
If it's food: fruit/nut trees, cold frame & garden, a few meat rabbits, a few chickens
If it's ???: good hand tools of appropriate kinds, classes in how-to ???, books, a rainwater cistern
What do or would you like to do that others would pay/trade for? What are your skills & interests?
Yes and no
She makes a lot of good points, especially the one about how the looting is too big to just be fraud. It's a system.
But I don't buy for a second that enforcing the law just a little bit means the system collapses. That sounds like an excuse.
Bill Black has written for years that it is systemic fraud which
he calls "control fraud". I can't recall anyone ever advocating that the best response is to roll over and ignore it. What will happen is that one of the dominoes will fall and trigger another collapse.
" “Human kindness has never weakened the stamina or softened the fiber of a free people. A nation does not have to be cruel to be tough.” FDR "
Absolutely Fascinating
She said she was a right wing person. Yet, almost of her CT is my CT (and maybe all, I'll have to watch again). Her look on history parallels mine in so many ways. Her disgust with the financial and moral aspects of our society echo mine clearly. She appears to be explaining the workings of the financial system pretty much exactly how I've thought it worked from my limited knowledge. Depopulation may seem absurd. And yet, I can't quite shake this feeling that the 60 or so years for the methane to dissipate from the atmosphere isn't really that long. for the protected.
It the very beginning of the vid I thought she looked like a liar, but as it progressed her animated mannerisms, that look of righteous damnation and/or exasperation with Americans and directness about our navy have me thinking she's being truthful, or at least she's honestly saying what she believes to be true.
I don't see her giving us an either/or, nor saying screw the poor. I see her saying 'this is how it is' and that Americans should get off their butts and actually do something. The consumer has the power (which is one of my long held mantras).
Am I seeing this all wrong? It must have been taped earlier in Obama's term but she didn't say anything about him. If there's some whole big thing I'm missing here, please tell me. I have this belief that only real things are real, but ain't it damn hard to know what is real at times.
It's a strange feeling watching that video to be sure.
Thank you VERY much for bringing it to my attention. Even if it all proves only entertainment.
With their hearts they turned to each others heart for refuge
In troubled years that came before the deluge
*Jackson Browne, 1974, Before the Deluge https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7SX-HFcSIoU