Think, if you will, of the political implications of that. Picture this:
John Q. Public, many of whom have no health insurance or pension, are going to be asked to bailout the pension benefits of Corporate and Municipal retirees! How do you think THAT is going to go over?
Not good, indeed. Not good at all.
Mentatt (at) yahoo (d0t) com
10 comments:
Those of us who will very soon rely on the dollar, Treasuries and tax revenue to fund our Federal pensions thank you all greatly for your dedication and promises-kept to the Federal civil service. Americans are truly a great people. I expect benefits in 2024. *gag*
The Federal government would need to give some kind of "pension" (Social Security raise) in order to make this palatable (prevent rioting).
This just gets better all the time...
Yea wait until mainstream america discovers that they have been paying an elevated social security tax for the past 25 years and all the so called accumulated trust fund money has been spent.
Private and Government pensions are not the only retirement funds that are lost.
Just what is it going to take for the people to revolt?
Lots and lots of government guns will prevent any revolt. No one wants to stop the gravy train. People are basically sheep. Nobody is gonna say anything so long as the Jewel food store has cheap food to buy. So just pay your taxes and no one will get hurt. :)
Please don't talk of "revolt" here.
As bureaucrat said... pay your taxes, and stay out of trouble, etc... Well informed, CIVIL, and thoughtful people are going to be necessary to fix this.
Things will get fixed one way or another... just know that many false promises have been made, and provide for yourself.
Things wont get fixed until the people fix the main problem. And that problem is a federal government that has out grown its usefulness.
And paying taxes was the first step in the that disasterous direction. How ohh how did the government management prior to the adoption of the 16th amendment.
On another/better subject :), Byron King says the drop in the oil and natural gas commodity prices were primarily caused by the recent run-up in the value of U.S. dollars. But the oil and gas NYMEX prices collapsed more than 50% in the last few months, and the U.S. dollar appreciated from 1.56 Euros to today's 1.28 Euros, an 18% drop/appreciation. I know nobody wants to talk about the rampant speculation that drove up commodity prices, and nothing moves exactly in tandem, but it's looking more likely that the oil and gas prices on NYMEX were just speculative bubbles (hedge funds and other people with too much borrowed money bidding up the commodity price with gusto) and not other reasons. Hm?
Ooops, I swapped it. I meant $1.56 per Euro and $1.28 per Euro. Sorry.
The price of oil is very inelastic in the short term. Worldwide demand was bumping up against the production limit. Since then demand has dropped a bit due to the recession. Demand only has to change a few percent at the supply limit to double the price. Of course, over the longer term, cheaper alternatives are found, and the long term curve is not as steep as the short term.
This is important. NOTICE that when oil was high, inventories were low, and now that oil is cheaper, inventories have almost caught up with last year. This is NOT indicative of a speculative bubble. This indicates a real shortage, which will soon return.
By comparison, even as housing prices were flying through the roof a few years ago, there were simultaneously mad construction and excess inventory. That's a speculative bubble.
Regards,
Coal Guy
This pension thing is just a symptom of our nation's economic disease. This sort of problem indicates why Mish thinks all of the bail-outs are useless and like pushing on a rope.
The problem is that production in the US lags consumption by a horrid amount. If we total Federal foreign borrowing with the balance of trade deficit we ge a number north of $1 Trillion per year. This cannot go on. There is no way anything will get better until that gap is closed. It is simply impossible to supply the present demand for goods and services without producing goods a services of equal value.
All of this money printing may cause a lot of inflation. Or, as Mish thinks, it just wont matter, and a deflationary spiral is upon us. Either way, we're just as much in trouble, and bail-outs won't help much. Nobody is talking about the root of the problem.
Regards,
Coal Guy
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