Stealing Pensions: THE WEALTHY are out for your RETIREMENT money.

Consider the math of state budgets. According to Pew's estimates, "The gap between states' assets and their obligations for public sector retirement benefits (is) $1.38 trillion" over 30 years. As the Center for Economic and Policy Research notes, this gap was not caused by benefit increases, as conservatives suggest. Data prove that most of it was caused by the stock market decline that accompanied the 2008 financial collapse.  CEPR points out, in most states the shortfall "is less than 0.2 percent of projected gross state product over the next 30 years."

State and local governments, then, aren't bankrupt. Indeed, contrary to pension-cutters' assertions, they are so flush with cash that they spend a combined $120 billion a year on corporate handouts -- almost three times the total pension gap.

http://www.alternet.org/economy/there-vast-oligarch-conspiracy-afoot-destroy-retirement-plans-millions?akid=11030.294211.ZwDjRM&rd=1&src=newsletter908474&t=7

STEALING RETIREMENT MONEY BY HEDGE FUND RICH GUYS! Teachers, Firefighters and Police Retirement funds being stolen

MATT TAIBBI: Sure, there is a huge corruption case that just broke open [on September 26].  What I would say about that, is what did Willie Sutton say about why he robbed banks? That’s where the money is. Look, pension funds are sort of the last great big unguarded piles of money in this country and there are going to be all sorts of operators who trying to get their hands on that money. During the crisis era, it was Wall Street banks who were essentially looting these funds by selling them toxic, fraudulent mortgage backed securities. In Detroit, it was the workers themselves who were taking the money. They’re giving themselves what they called 13th checks, taking advances of their own money. But across the country the more typical narrative is not some worker who is making $19,000 who is really making out in this kind of corruption. It is the hedge fund who is making $50 and $60 million in fees managing state funds. That is the much more typical narrative.

http://www.alternet.org/corporate-accountability-and-workplace/taibbi-his-latest-expose-how-wall-street-hedge-funds-are?akid=10978.294211.U2Xj9P&rd=1&src=newsletter901960&t=7

401(k)s: How the Rich stole our retirement money: A BAD IDEA for the middle class.

It was a bad idea from the get-go but new research shows that America’s 401(k) revolution has left us even worse off than we thought. Here’s a look at how we got into this mess and where it will take us if we don’t wise up.
The Dumbest Retirement Policy in the World


http://billmoyers.com/2013/09/25/how-401ks-rewarded-the-rich-and-turned-the-rest-of-us-into-big-losers/