David Cay Johnston spelled it out yesterday on a Thom Hartmann’s radio show. The managers of 401ks got 11% from fees while 401k owner got 4% from investments.
Geithner said yesterday during his presentation on the state of Medicare and Social Security that Obama is open to negotiations on Social Security, in other word, privatization.
If the resulting change is anything like the one Bush had in mind, this will be another winfall for Wall Street, and some workers might wind up owing money to Wall Street in retirement.

News from 20 minutes ago: “Imported petroleum prices were up 15.4 percent in April - the largest monthly rise since a 17 percent increase in March 2002 - following revised rises of 7.9 percent in March and 5.3 percent in February.”

The oil barons are at our door again - not only will Mom be unable to pay for her cat-food dinner, she will not be able to afford transportation to where they sell her Fancy Feast. I guess all us old-timers will have to step down a peg and eat that pet food that only comes in white bags and has spanish written all over them - I wonder what “alimentos” means. 

As for the folks that want us Baby Boomers to re-train and restart our careers, I am completely available for a CEO slot or hedge fund manager position - I believe I could NOT do worse for the economy than those that have brought down the house. Does my Evelyn Wood Speed Reading Course count?
Will some corporation PLEASE hire me as CEO and then fire me with a $20Mg termination package ?  (Secretly, I’d gladly settle for $1 Mg.)

I live in a neighborhood where many people either teach at or work for an Ivy League University. During the bubble many of them enjoyed high returns on their retirement benefits through TIAA CREF, but it, too, was hit in the recent crisis.

One professor in her seventies told me she can’t quit teaching, as she’d like to, because she supports her own mother. Another woman, a retiree, told me almost crying in the street that when she finally had the nerve to look at her statements, 40 percent of what she had was gone. She has never married and has only one surviving relative, another aging woman with children.

These are women who, along with their families, invested heavily in higher education. That was supposed to lift them above the lot of the previous generation, but it didn’t factor in the lemmings who would offer great profits on their retirement funds only to let them down when they need it most. I wish they were exceptional, but I suspect they aren’t.

Quite right, ocjim.  And yet there are still plenty of suckers (read: working and middle class conservatives) in this country who are willing to vote against their own best interests in order to preserve a future where they won’t be heavily taxed once they finally become billionaires.  Too many Americans still suffer from this kind of pestilential idiocy (read: American Dream delusion).

What reason have thou for discontent?  Are not pet foods varied and plentiful?  Are they not spreadable AND affordable? 

Now, set aside the lamentations, Cocco!  Set aside the wringing of hands!  For none shall want in the New Utopia.

Comfort at any age is going to be a thing of the past for any average American. In modern times since Reagan, each time the Republicans take office and establish their anti-people agenda, it becomes harder and harder for succeeding Democrats to break the Faustian agreement between business and government that favors business interests over that of the people.

In fact, the structure of our economy and the tax system have changed so much because of neocon influence and the Democrats have been progressively neutered by the plutocracy to such an extent that the hopes of the people for a share of economic benefits are dwindling.

Our economic base, the hope for good jobs, and the influence of the rich over taxes all combine to make any affluence for the future only a hope for the currently rich.

cyrena
Here we are SO simpatico!  I think we are both facing the challenge of an elderly mother, with some dementia, plus you have the addition of an idiot system that initially looks askance because of higher melanin levels in the patient.

Mom, who is still mostly lucid, finally got rid of the doctor who never took anything she said seriously, and NEVER had a sense of urgency.  With Alzheimers, the earlier the intervention the better, especially if the patient is a good candidate for Aricept.

THE major problem for all seniors is health care, and Botch&Co; made it all worse to protect the big Pharmas (and most of them aren’t even US companies—Beyer, Novartis, GSK, Hoffman LaRoche, Schering).

Then there’s housing—senior housing is INCREDIBLY expensive for condos—3/4 of a million $ for an apartment in NJ is common—and we’re not talking Englewood Cliffs, Short Hills or Summit, either!

It just stinks.

•  “The institute has just released an unsettling account of the many ways in which women are financially disadvantaged in our current retirement system—a system that is crumbling for everyone, but with the fallout hitting women hardest. “The retirement glass ceiling,” as the group calls it, was firmly in place before the financial crisis hit. Now it is hardening.”

This is actually not a ‘new’ discovery. Women have been HISTORICALLY financially disadvantaged in the retirement system. Nope. Not news.

So, that much is true. The retirement glass ceiling has been in place since the beginning. It’s been in place since the LAST GREAT DEPRESSION! They call it a ‘financial crisis’, but that somehow sounds too canned and/or trite. Like the way a once-in-a-century natural (as in Mother Nature) disaster occurs, like Hurricane Katrina HIT and wiped out a large portion of OUR Gulf Coast, and destroyed multiple lives in the process, with continuing after-effects that continue to destroy lives.

Still, part of that was at least a naturally occurring event. All the death and destruction didn’t have to happen though. It was clearly allowed and encouraged. “Let Nature Take It’s Course” in the case of New Orleans and nearby environs. An “Executive (Political) Decision”. Haven’t they all been?

And, it’s the same thing with the ‘financial crisis’. This worst ever and now global DEPRESSION didn’t just pop up out of nowhere. It’s been largely artificially created/crafted/manipulated and qualifies as Grand Theft Larceny in just about anybody’s book.

So, while the system has always been disadvantageous for women, (even worse if one is a woman of color in the workplace of the past say 6 or so decades at least?) the so-called ‘financial crisis’ is far, far, worse than the term implies in such ‘before and after’ terms.

We are talking DEPRESSION on a level the US has never seen, because this is actually a far greater DISASTER than the Great Depression, at least in my own fairly well informed opinion, because there are too many factors that make THIS disaster one that was intentionally manipulated, and not overnight. The socio-political mindset that has prevailed for the better part of the past four decades brought us to this point, without anybody paying much attention.

But then, that became painfully obvious when a substantial portion of the American populace allowed our Country to be highjacked by a thug regime via a Judicial Coup back in 2000. NOW you’re paying attention? (some of these comments make me think some of you folks might be a tad bit naive, or just a few bricks short of a full load.)

Meantime, like I said…nothing new here. We’ve been aware and have addressed it with the passage of the Lilly Ledbetter Act, so Miss Marie, you should keep up with this stuff.

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h111-11

(at least if you’re gonna write about what USED to be, to what it has become…gotta keep up with the pace now…things are hoppin’)

And not if mom is disabled.  RE caia: some jobs that women traditionally hold/have held are not even covered by social security.  When I started teaching, over four decades ago (very young), teachers in NYC were not covered.  I left for art career, working jobs to pay for art career, but by accident, learned that self-employed people can/should pay their own Social Security coverage, so if need it, will be covered under Social Security Disability Insurance.  Women usually have earned less and collect less, if they collect Social Security at all.  Taking care of child/children should count as work for Social Security benefits.

hello. pity the poor moms, that are alone, that were earning $50k annually, and got swindled: instead of divorced; or lived out their golden years with their “husband”, until they stopped caring for him, and he died without enough life insurance; after gambling away the nest egg. there are no assets; and social security just isn’t enough. pity this microcosm of whomever this article addresses, because they do not deserve a handout- they need a hand up. retrain and get better productivity out of them. talk to your mom about multitasking in retirement and how it’s never too late to start over.

So the adage holds true, ‘a woman’s work is never done’. Maybe when Obama gets finished bailing out Wall Street and the swine bankers, he’ll save moms everywhere. Right.