Wall Street Debacle Hits Main Street: Warnings Unheeded
What about all those 401K plans and pensions invested through Lehman Brothers, etc.?
As this sobering message from a reader of John Aravosis' AmericaBlog explains: "My wife and I are in our 40s. We've been putting money away in our respective 401k plans since 1999. When Bush took office the Dow was around 10,659 (approx.). Today the Dow is approaching the same level as when Bush took office (by contrast, Clinton added about 7000 points to the DJIA). We have lost 7 years of savings. How are we supposed to make that up? What if another Republican is elected? Another 8 years of this and we'll be in our late 40s with practically nothing saved for retirement and we'll probably be sucked dry by the health insurance costs for our family of 3 (soon to be 4) since, under McCain, it's unlikely that employers will continue to provide coverage.
"On top of our retirement that's disappearing, we've got to consider exploding day care, education, fuel, and other CPI costs while our income stagnates or declines. You guys think Europe, China, or Russia are gonna go down the tubes with us? Hell no, if Americans elect another Republican those countries are going to begin isolating the U.S. in an effort to protect their own economies. Republicans are right, the End Times are near."
"On top of our retirement that's disappearing, we've got to consider exploding day care, education, fuel, and other CPI costs while our income stagnates or declines. You guys think Europe, China, or Russia are gonna go down the tubes with us? Hell no, if Americans elect another Republican those countries are going to begin isolating the U.S. in an effort to protect their own economies. Republicans are right, the End Times are near."
Many of the comments are also interesting such as this one: "I never did like the 401K idea for this reason. When the idea first came around and the people from outside came to my company selling it to the crowd in group meetings they promised everyone would be a millionaire when they retire. I'm still for the group retirement plans they had before that. And, luckily I still am part of that since that was in place before 401k came along. All this did was use public retirement money to gamble away with to the delight of wall street insiders. Now, the chickens are coming home to roost."
And Chris in Paris at AmericaBlog hits the nail on the head with this: "Profits have been privatized and losses socialized"
"Nouriel Roubini really lowered the boom on Wall Street and the Republican system of ignoring basic regulatory obligations. I wish CNBC would allow video to be embedded, but watch the video in this link. Roubini had been predicting this financial failure for a few years so what he has to say is always interesting. Before this implosion, the GOP economists dismissed what he had to say though today, they've all gone quiet." (Link to Nouriel Roubini added.)
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