New Retirement Model of Working into Old Age – Baby Boomers hitting retirement age with little to no savings.

MyBudget360
December 16, 2012

The fiscal issues facing the country are troubling for a variety of reasons but one big reason is the reality that many older Americans simply do not have enough money to retire.  The idea of entering your golden years without the need of working is a relatively modern one.  In fact, it was the generation that grew up after World War II that enjoyed this middle class ideal.  A secure job, a paid off house, and the ability to send your children to a good college.  That was the dream.  Yet that dream is now largely gone in a puff of smoke.  It has been gone for sometime but the ability to access unsupportable debt kept the party illusion going a decade or so longer.  Today, Americans are now entering retirement at a time when the stock market has given zero returns over a decade.  Government debt is tipping over and we continually spend more than we earn.  For millions of older Americans, retirement means continuing to work.

The evaporation of a pension

Back in 1983, not too long ago 62 percent of Americans had what we would call a pension.  Today that figure is down to 20 percent:

That rate is now much lower if we had data on it since this research was done prior to the 2007 meltdown.  The meltdown also brought to the forefront that unrealistic returns of 8 to 10 percent per year were mostly pipe dreams.  The 2000s were largely a decade fueled byhigh debt spending.  The real estate bubble created a sugar high that really did not add any deeper value to our overall economy.  Many in fact tapped into their equity, a thought that would seem sacrosanct in the previous generation, and will now have to pay it back.  In the past the ability to have a paid off home provide added security.  Many then with a modest Social Security check had the ability to make ends meet.  Many today continue to carry a mortgage well into older age.

This becomes even more troublesome because the majority of retirees depend on Social Security as their largest source of income.  This ties in with the earlier chart.  Even in the 1980s those with pensions likely had a bigger cushion when they combined this with Social Security.  That is no longer the case.  Today, most have the access to 401k plans and as we have seen, the market is back to levels last seen in the late 1990s.  Also, those that built portfolios up during this time will need to sell to withdraw funds to live.  Who will buy these funds?  Younger Americans?  Younger Americans are massively in debt and half are either working at jobs that don’t require college degrees, are underemployed, or have not job.  The 401k is the least of their worries.

Less work and more college debt

It is clear that education is valuable for many reasons.  Yet with tuition costs being so high you have to ask whether it is worth it.  Our overall participation rate in the workforce is dramatically lower for younger Americans:

Many are now competing with older Americans for lower level positions.  You also have massive numbers of students going to college yet overall, a college degree has been watered down.  You might ask, if younger Americans are poorer how can they afford record levels of college costs?  They can’t.  But what they can do is go into massive student debt.  This is why today, total outstanding college debt is well over $1 trillion.

So think about this.  You have an older population with 10,000 Americans hitting retirement age each and every day.  Many will rely on Social Security at a time when we keep going into deeper debt.  You then have younger Americans with a large portion already in deep college debt working jobs that largely do not pay a good wage and the days of a pension are all but gone.  It should be no surprise why we now have 47.7 million Americans on food stamps.

How will America adjust to this world with no retirement or with the idea of what we once thought of as retirement?  It isn’t a question we need to ponder much since we are going to find out in real-time.

Obama administration, Congress quietly let school security funds lapse

Washington Guardian
December 16, 2012

Beneath the expressions of grief, sorrow and disbelief over the Connecticut school massacre lies an uneasy truth in Washington: over the last few years the Obama administration and Congress quietly let federal funding for several key school security programs lapse in the name of budget savings.

Government officials told the Washington Guardian on Friday night that two Justice Department programs that had provided more than $200 million to schools for training, security equipment and police resources over the last decade weren't renewed in 2011 and 2012, and that a separate program that provided $800 million to put police officers inside the schools was ended a few years earlier.

Meanwhile, the administration eliminated funding in 2011-12 for a separate Education Department program that gave money to schools to prepare for mass tragedies, the officials said.

A nationally recognized school security expert said those funds had been critical for years in helping schools continue to enhance protections against growing threats of violence. But they simply dried up with little notice as the Columbine and Virginia Tech school shooting tragedies faded from memory and many Americans and political leaders had their attentions diverted to elections, a weak economy and overseas dramas.

“I was baffled to see funds and programs cut in these areas,” said Kenneth Trump, the president of the National School Safety and Security Services firm that helps school districts and policymakers improve protections for teachers and students. “Our political and policy leaders need to walk the walk, not just talk the talk about being concerned about school safety.

“We have roller coaster public awareness, public policy, and public funding when it comes to school safety. The question isn't whether school safety is a priority today and tomorrow,” Trump added. “The question is whether it will be a priority years down the road when there isn't a crisis in the headlines.”

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2ND BITE TO CHALLENGE OBAMA'S ELIGIBILITY?

World Net Daily
December 10, 2012

A longstanding eligibility case challenging Barack Obama’s presence in the White House soon could be headed to the state Supreme Court in Alabama, where one justice already in a court filing has questioned the authenticity of Obama’s documentation, and the incoming chief justice is a dyed-in-the-wool Constitution supporter with little tolerance for those who want to bypass the document.

The move is pending in an eligibility challenge brought by Hugh McInnish and others against the Alabama Secretary of State Beth Chapman.

The case most recently was turned down by a state district judge, Eugene Reese, who got his opinion into the mix by determining that the case was “ordered, adjudged and decreed” to be dismissed.

The case calls for a determination that Chapman “has a duty to verify the eligibility of those seeking office.”

In a recent brief in the case, attorney Larry Klayman, founder of Judicial Watch and now of the Klayman Law Firm in Washington, noted that while the state is arguing it should not be tasked with making sure candidates are eligible, the submission by the state itself suggests otherwise.

“[An attorney general's opinion] is not case precedent binding on this court … Nevertheless, it constitutes an admission by Alabama’s chief law enforcement officer on behalf of the state that if the Secretary of State has knowledge gained from an official source about a candidate’s eligibility then she ‘should not’ certify the candidate.”

The issue is the conflict over the requirements of the U.S. Constitution, which demands, “No Person except a natural born citizen, or a citizen of the United States, at the time of the adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the office of president…”

While Obama’s campaign first released a representation of a short-form birth document from Hawaii, and the White House later officially posted online a representation of a long-form certificate, the authenticity of both of those documents has been questioned.

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DID OBAMA STEAL THE 2012 ELECTION?

World Net Daily

December 11, 2012

WASHINGTON — Following Barack Obama’s re-election, accusations from some quarters have held that his campaign stole the election through vote fraud. Others claim no vote fraud occurred, and that the election victory resulted from the Obama campaign’s vastly superior get-out-the-vote effort. One RedState diarist has even gone so far as to announce that commenters complaining that the election was stolen will be banned from the site.

With all of the swirling allegations, where does the truth lie? While there have been many proven cases of vote fraud in previous elections, and many credible allegations of fraud in this election cycle, was the cumulative total of all fraud sufficient to throw the election for Obama? After all, Obama’s team ran an intensely focused, highly organized get-out-the-vote effort. Republican efforts were, by comparison, disorganized and nowhere near as comprehensive or sophisticated.

Still, members of the president’s team did everything possible to rig the game in their favor. They took liberties with the law Republicans would never dare attempt and obstructed voter-integrity efforts at every turn, while the vast political-media-entertainment-education-union-nonprofit complex went all in to promote Obama’s narrative.

Democrats and their media allies also engaged in what has fairly been described as a dishonest and “vicious” campaign to discredit the Republican nominee while steadfastly  shielding the administration from its many scandals. Any of these could have sunk Obama’s reelection prospects had the media reported them with the enthusiasm they showed in attacking and spreading disinformation about Romney.

When it comes to outright vote fraud, however, let’s examine first those allegations with the greatest potential for skewing election results.

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"A Nation Without counsel"

SIC SEMPER TYRANNIS!!!
Mark Matheny
December 11, 2012


Mark Matheny discusses current events.

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Vatican calls for world government and a New World Order

Activist Post

December 11, 2012

The leader of the Catholic Church, Pope Benedict XVI, has called for the establishment of World Government and a New World Order.

In a speech made at the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace on Monday December 3 2012, the Pope called for the “construction of a world community, with a corresponding authority,” to serve the “common good of the human family”.

As a means of defending global peace and justice, the pope’s vision for the establishment of World Government and a New World Order is supposedly not to create a new superpower, but a new governing body that offers to those (politicians) who are responsible for making decisions, criteria for judgment and practical guidelines.

The Pope was quoted as saying:

The proposed body (World Government) would not be a superpower, concentrated in the hands of a few, which would dominate all peoples, exploiting the weakest.

The Pope also described his vision as a “moral force” or moral authority that has the “power to influence in accordance with reason, that is, a participatory authority, limited by law in its jurisdiction.”

These latest remarks made by the Pope and the Catholic Church come as no surprise considering that in 2010 the Catholic Church sought the establishment of a new Central World Bank that would be responsible for regulating the global financial industry and the international money supply.

It was reported that the Vatican sought “a supranational authority” which would have worldwide scope and “universal jurisdiction” to guide and control global economic policies and decisions.

China’s new push for closer ties with Russia, the growing intrusions from the United Nations with regards to control of the Internet and the latest remarks made by the Catholic Church all point to anew world order that will set in stone a path the world may not be able to recover from.

Andrew Puhanic is the founder of the Globalist Report. The aim of the Globalist Report is to provide current, relevant and informative information about the Globalists and Globalist Agenda. You can contact Andrew directly by visiting the Globalist Report

Doha Fails Utterly – Only 37 Countries Agree To Extend Old Kyoto Treaty! “Lots Of Declarations Of Intent”

No Tricks Zone
December 11, 2012

The German media report that only a totally lame climate treaty compromise was reached in Doha: Kyoto I will be extended until 2020.

Sun sets on Doha. Minimal compromise reached. Source: www.cop18.qa

For those calling for rapid reductions in CO2 emissions, the result in Doha can only be described as an utter disaster. The Doha agreement will do absolutely nothing to curb CO2 growth, let alone cut net CO2 emissions.

One reason is that few countries are left taking part. Online FOCUS magazine reports only a few countries have signed on to extending Kyoto I, which FOCUS calls a “minimal compromise”. Only 37 of 194 countries signed on. That means the treaty is internationally non-binding.

The only thing that is certain is that there are going to be many more climate junkets in the future, wasting more taxpayer money.

The left wing TAZ reports that these 37 countries are “responsible for about 15% of global greenhouse gas emissions. And it still remains open how high the planned reductions will be.” Those that signed on to make reductions couldn’t even tell us how much.

The conservative FAZ  reports on financial assistance to developing countries: “…there were lots of declarations of intent – and voluntary commitments from a few European countries.” But nothing binding here either.

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