Bush's Market-Liberal Scam
Remember the president's scheme to "privatize" Social Security? (I put the word in quotes to point out that the plan was never actual privatization.) Let's say Bush had actually achieved his goal of creating private accounts that you are forced to contribute to, and a sizable swath of the American public had invested in safe mutual funds spread across many sectors. What would have been the result? Look at the state of the financial markets. The Bush administration would have holy Hell to pay. The public would have turned against the "market liberals" who gave us this scam. Capitalism would have been denounced as having generated yet another shock-therapy failure. Investment standards would have been ever more regulated. The companies that held most of the "private" funds would be declared too big to fail. The subprime bailout would have become a full-bore stock market bailout. This would have been declared the ultimate failure of free markets. It's hard to be grateful for anything during the Bush presidency, but we can at least be thankful that the so-called market liberals did not get their way on this one. FULL ARTICLE
Comments (1)
you americans should be grateful for small mercies. here in australia, 9% of gross salary is levied for superannuation. this initiative was from the centre-left party, but the centre-right party only added to the mess.
it's been a veritable honey-pot for stockbrokers, accountants and lawyers (the act started out already bulky, but has really packed on the pounds since).
yes, when people find their fund has underperformed, they will blame the "free market". the greatest danger is, come the next recession, this enormous pool of captive money will be subject to punitive taxation, or coercive investment prescriptions (eg. every fund must have 20% in government "solidarity bonds" etc.)
in the good old days prior to the 1970's, inflation was low enough for the unsophisticated to be able to use a saving account for retirement, confidant that the cost of living was possible to budget for with some degree of reliability.
bring back money integrity, and everything else falls in place. only the lamborghini dealers suffer.
Published: March 17, 2008 11:11 PM