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Saving our Pensions: The Battle for Individual vs. Government Control is Engaged

June 15, 2010 (By Bud Burrell)

– From Front and Center, by Bud Burrell –

For those who have not been listening carefully, the left has taken the first steps to seize the public and private pension assets of US Citizens without their consent. Over the past several months, Nancy Pelosi and other Administration operatives have sent up several trial balloons preceding an outright attack on the control of individual retirement accounts, beginning with the proposal for a special excise tax on those who begin to draw down their IRA, 401K, ERISA, Roth and other types of retirement assets accumulated without tax consequence. The Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, as modified, created the modern financial asset base of the US, in creating the very first Government backed systematic savings plans in our national history. [entire post]

Tags: 2600 pages unread, debt deficit $121 t, epa cap and trade rules avoid legislation, erisa, europe, failed socialism, nationalization, obama care, pension
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Tax Increases Start, 90 Days Into Presidency

April 30, 2009 (By Bud Burrell)

From “Front & Center”, by Bud Burrell

Today, the News Services announced that the Obama Administration and Congress will do away with the Middle Class Tax Cuts enacted under the Bush Administration. This comes on top an already announced decision to let the upper class tax cuts expire next year. Wow, that’s impressive, only 90 days to break the biggest recurring promise of his campaign.

The meager $400 Middle Class Tax Cut had already been eaten up with increased medical plan co-pay increases, along with increases in Social Security contributions. With only about 55% of Americans paying income tax, it means all tax payers paying over the standard social security contribution levels will be looking at tax increases next year.

The spectacular increase faced by all US citizens, tax payers or not, is the probable tax to be implemented for Cap and Trade, which will impose a 45% tax on all carbon based energy consumed by individuals, corporations, manufacturers, large buildings, and power plants. The minimum total tax increase on Utility bills alone will exceed 50% of current bills. This is money millions of Americans will not have to spend. [entire post]

Tags: (the) treasury, admistration, banks, cap & trade, co-pay, congress, energy, fund, government(s), gun control, health care, insurance, job(s), medical, middle class, obama, pension, retirement, single-pay, social security, socialism, tarp, tax(es), universal, utlilities
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No Accounting For Corporate Governance, Part 1

April 29, 2009 (By Susanne Trimbath, Ph.D.)

From “Outside The Ivory Tower”, by Dr. Susanne Trimbath

This is the first of a six-part series of blogs to detail the importance of corporate governance to institutional investors; to describe the tension created by their desire to earn extra revenue from stock lending; and to outline the challenges to corporate governance presented by the subsequent lack of accounting for voting rights.

Introduction

In October 2008, at a U.S. Congressional hearing on the financial crisis, former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan admitted that he was shocked to find out, after 40 years as an economist, that some executives would do things that were not in the best interest of the company they worked for. His approach was overly simplistic because the difference between what executives can do and what they should do is the crux of corporate governance. The legal form of the corporation (or the UK joint stock company, etc.) allows for the separation of management and ownership. The people who control the operations of the corporation and how its money is spent are not the same people who paid for the assets of the corporation. This creates a clear conflict of interest and this conflict between the managers and investors creates the need for a system of checks on managers-the system of corporate governance. [entire post]

Tags: corporate, fund, governance, institutional, investing, pension, proxy voting, shorting, stock lending
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