POLITICS

FROM THE
BLUE COLLAR
MIKE SHORTRIDGE

POLITICS FROM THE BLUE COLLAR

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WASHINGTON, February 3, 2013 The $19.4

trillion sitting in personal retirement accounts like
the 401K may be too tempting an apple for a
government that is quite broke, both monetarily and
morally. The U.S. Consumer Financial Protection
Bureau director Richard Cordray recently mentioned
these accounts in a recent interview, stating Thats
one of the things weve been exploring and are
interested in, in terms of whether and what authority
we have.
This agency, created by the 2010 Dodd-FrankAct, is very concerned about how safe your
retirement savings are. They are apparently
concerned that retiring baby boomers may become
victims of financial scams.
If the government takes control of retirement
accounts, it will not be called nationalization.
There will most likely be an indecipherable
document that provides an opt-out option (initially),
but why would you want to do that? The US
government only wants to ensure the safety of your
retirement funds; they did after all create a new
bureaucracy for that specific purpose. And what
could be a safer investment than US bonds?

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Chinas premier Wen Jiabao recently made a very

polite, but very pointed statement to the US
concerning its continued policy of debt monetization

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(printing money to pay the bills).

We have made a huge amount of loans to the
United States. Of course we are concerned about the
safety of our assets. To be honest, Im a little bit
worried. I would like to call on the United States to
honor its words, stay a credible nation and ensure
the safety of Chinese assets.
It is estimated that of the roughly $2 trillion China
holds in currency reserves, about half is in U.S.
Treasuries. While that may not seem significant, you
would not want to know what would happen should
they put even half of those treasuries on the open
market. While that is certainly not expected, an
escalation of Japan-China tensions in their ongoing
(and worsening) argument over East and South
China Sea islands, with the U.S. firmly behind Japan,
means anything is possible.
Assuming that the island dispute does not turn
into open warfare, there is still the matter of
addressing the very serious concerns that China has
voiced, and many other countries echo: We are
devaluing our currency, which they are heavily
invested in, at a rapid pace and with no indication of
ever stopping.

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This brings us back to that juicy apple hanging

from the tree of our lifes work. Nationalizing the
personal retirement accounts would allow our

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government to borrow even more from its largest

debtor (U.S. citizens) without further devaluing the
currency. While this may seem far-fetched, as
international pressure mounts to maintain the value
of the dollar, you will hear more about this.
If at some date we find ourselves at a tipping point
in international relations, it may very well come
down to nationalizing our 401Ks or going to war.
Many Americans are choosing to take their penalties
and withdraw their 401K funds while they still can.
Read more:
http://communities.washingtontimes.com/neighbor
hood/politics-blue-collar/2013/feb/3/your- 401kabout-be-nationalized/#ixzz2wXaVwt8L

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POLITICS FROM THE BLUE COLLAR

Fidelity Financial Co., LLC

215 S. 88th Street
Omaha, NE 68114
Mark T. Houston
(402) 880-7008
mark@fidfin.co

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