FrankRep
03-01-2010, 01:49 PM
Obama Executive Order Moves Mandatory Savings Account Scheme Forward (http://www.jbs.org/blog/obama-executive-order-moves-mandatory-savings-account-scheme-forward.html)
Jim Capo | John Birch Society (http://www.jbs.org/)
Feb 23, 2010
The Chairman Emeritus (http://www.cfr.org/about/people/board_of_directors.html) of The Council on Foreign Relations, Peter Peterson would like to control your new mandatory savings account and president Obama is doing his best to accommodate him.
In his State of the Union address (http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/remarks-president-state-union-address) on January 27th, president Obama announced that he would be forming by executive order a biparitsan budget commission. On February 18th, he made good (http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/president-obama-establishes-bipartisan-national-commission-fiscal-responsibility-an) on that pledge. In his address to the nation, the president said this commission would be patterned on the one envisioned in legislation introduced by senators Conrad and Gregg that had been defeated in the U.S. Senate just the day before. However, the commission envisioned by Conrad and Gregg was actually (http://www.pgpf.org/newsroom/press/pressconference/) the brainchild of billionaire Wall Street insider Peter Peterson and the foundation bearing his name.
Peterson has been pedaling the idea of an independent commission as the way to address the budget deficit and debt crisis of the federal government since at least July 2008, when his foundation purchased and released (http://www.pgpf.org/newsroom/press/pgpflaunches/) the documentary film IOUSA (http://www.iousathemovie.com/). As stated in the Peterson Foundation press release issued before Obama's speech, the proposed commission should "not rule out any potential solutions in advance--all spending and revenue related options should be on the table."
(emphasis as in the original)
The all options on the table talking point has already been confirmed by the two co-chairs now named to the commission by president Obama: former Clinton Chief of Staff, Erskin Bowles and former Senator Alan Simpson of Wyoming. In a weekend interview (http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20602085&sid=ajH_cxgJofnQ) on the Bloomberg News show Political Capital With Al Hunt, Bowles and Simpson also professed their desire to have Peterson's bagmen Conrad and Gregg join them on the commission.
Mr. Peterson, his foundation and the collaborators he has picked up along the way know what ails us and they are going to use what should properly be called The Peterson Commission as the delivery vector for their cure. The problem of course is that our cure is coming from the same crowd that intentionally infected us with their mortal canker (http://avalon.law.yale.edu/19th_century/jeffmes2.asp) in the first place.
What kind of crowd Peterson been running with? His career highlights include an early stint as CEO (http://blogs.wsj.com/deals/2009/06/02/pete-peterson-decries-old-spoiled-and-ungrateful-lehman-colleagues/tab/article/) of the later to be infamous Lehman Brothers, an appointment (http://www.brandt21forum.info/Bio_Peterson.htm) to the Independent Commission on International Development Issues headed by Socialist Internationale president (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialist_International) Willy Brandt, chairman of the New York Fed, chairman and chairman emeritus titles at The Council of Foreign Relations, and co-founder of the the Blackstone Group the outfit charged with funneling federal bailout money through AIG to Goldman Sachs and other undisclosed parties.
Among the options being put on the table for The Peterson Commission, the most novel is the Peterson Foundation's recommendation that American wage earners should be forced into participating in mandatory savings accounts
These worker saving accounts would be like what Social Security was originally sold to be - retirement savings accounts mandated by the federal government that workers (and their employers) would pay into during their working years so that they could have something to support themselves with in retirement. The twist on this version of the scam would be that this time there really would be individual accounts with a workers name on them. And a special bonus; rather than being managed by the federal government, they would be managed by private investment firms...like the Blackstone Group that Peter Peterson just happens to operate (http://www.serendipity.li/wot/blackstone_group.html).
Now voluntary savings would be one thing, but the adjective "mandatory" has been used. Peterson himself used the word during the live discussion that took place immediately following the premier showing of IOUSA in select theaters around the country. That interview is the copyrighted material of the Peterson Foundation. For now, all we have to titillate video fans is the short clip (http://bit.ly/d81lW5) of Peterson using the word "provocative" as he lead into his explanation of why mandatory savings are required.
We do have the Peterson Foundation down in writing though using the word "mandatory." The day after the premier of IOUSA, Peterson's hired gun, David Walker, former Arthur Anderson board member GAO director gave a presentation at a town hall meeting hosted by Virginia Congressman Jim Moran. On slide number 27 of Walker's presentation we read:
"Consider mandatory supplemental individual savings accounts on a payroll deduction basis (e.g., a minimum 2 percent payroll contribution and a program designed much like the Federal Thrift Savings Plan with a real trust fund and real investments)"
Saving Our Future
Slideshow presentation by Peter G. Peterson Foundation. (http://www.slideshare.net/PGPF/saving-our-future)
Click Above
Mandatory is not the only red flag in Walker's presentation. That the Peterson Foundation plan for all wage earners might be patterned on the Federal Thrift Savings Plan (FSP) is also provocative.
The FSP, available for federal employees like congressional staff workers, has over $200 billion of assets (on paper anyway). About half these assets are in special non-negotiable US Treasury notes issued especially for the FSP scheme. The other half are invested in stocks, bonds and other securities.
The US Treasury manages its IOU's in the plan. The nearly $100 billion in the other half of the plan is managed by (http://www.tsp.gov/rates/fundsheet-cfund.pdf) Blackrock Financial. And, yes, shock, Blackrock Financial (http://www.blackrockinvestments.com.au/SiloLocalContent/index.htm) is a creation of Mr. Peterson's Blackstone Group. In fact, the FSP and Blackstone were birthed almost as a matched set. It's tough to fail when you form an investment management company at the same time you can gain the contract that directs a percentage (http://www.tsp.gov/features/chapter04.html) of the Federal government payroll into your hands. Putting in the federal law that created the FSP the stipulation that the fund management company will have all voting rights (http://www.tsp.gov/faq/faq11.html) for the shares held was a nice touch too.
Mr. Peterson and his friends have demonstrated that they know well how to play the system. It is not hard to imagine that the Obama's bipartisan Peterson Commission will be used to develop a done deal, must pass piece of legislation to be introduced in the coming lame duck session of Congress.
Using the Peterson FSP scheme as a guide, we should expect then that among the many austerity measures to be initiated by this legislation will likely be a program that, under the guise of funding a retirement savings account, a percentage of every American worker's paycheck will be siphoned off into the control of Mr. Peterson and his fellow banking syndicate cronies. It is also likely that a significant portion of this mandatory retirement savings money will be earmarked for purchasing the ultimate supposed safe haven investment: U.S. Treasuries. That is, as the smart money begins to bail (http://www.istockanalyst.com/article/viewarticle/articleid/3861666) en masse from Treasury auctions, plans (http://market-ticker.denninger.net/archives/1830-401kIRA-Screw-Job-Coming.html) are already in the works to have Americans to buy their own toxic debt.
Americans will thus be forced into a new scheme under which they will be required to hold IOU's from the federal government. Mandatory savings accounts will be used as both a stealth social security tax increase and a guaranteed income stream for the likes of Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley and of course Mr. Peterson's Blackstone Group.
Bottom line: Mr. Peterson is not concerned about solving the nation's budget crisis as much as he is making sure that he doesn't miss a chance to line his own pockets at our expense. If we are smart we will kill The Peterson Commission before it gets off the ground. The best way to do this is to convince Republican minority leaders in the Congress that they should refuse to appoint Republican members to the commission.
Contact Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell (http://mcconnell.senate.gov/contact.cfm) of Kentucky and House GOP Leader John Boehner (http://johnboehner.house.gov/Contact/) of Ohio, immediately. Tell them that Republicans should not participate in a scheme designed to take advantage of a lame duck session of Congress. If what the Peterson Commission is planning is sincerely in the best interests of the American people, its recommendations should be made public either well BEFORE Congress adjourns for the November election, or AFTER the 112th Congress is seated in 2011. Anything done in between is sure to be devious.
Take action now, or you may soon be forcibly drafted into paying for dodgy US Treasuries out of your weekly paycheck — while handing some shady investment banker a transaction fee on top of it.
SOURCE:
http://www.jbs.org/blog/obama-executive-order-moves-mandatory-savings-account-scheme-forward.html
Jim Capo | John Birch Society (http://www.jbs.org/)
Feb 23, 2010
The Chairman Emeritus (http://www.cfr.org/about/people/board_of_directors.html) of The Council on Foreign Relations, Peter Peterson would like to control your new mandatory savings account and president Obama is doing his best to accommodate him.
In his State of the Union address (http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/remarks-president-state-union-address) on January 27th, president Obama announced that he would be forming by executive order a biparitsan budget commission. On February 18th, he made good (http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/president-obama-establishes-bipartisan-national-commission-fiscal-responsibility-an) on that pledge. In his address to the nation, the president said this commission would be patterned on the one envisioned in legislation introduced by senators Conrad and Gregg that had been defeated in the U.S. Senate just the day before. However, the commission envisioned by Conrad and Gregg was actually (http://www.pgpf.org/newsroom/press/pressconference/) the brainchild of billionaire Wall Street insider Peter Peterson and the foundation bearing his name.
Peterson has been pedaling the idea of an independent commission as the way to address the budget deficit and debt crisis of the federal government since at least July 2008, when his foundation purchased and released (http://www.pgpf.org/newsroom/press/pgpflaunches/) the documentary film IOUSA (http://www.iousathemovie.com/). As stated in the Peterson Foundation press release issued before Obama's speech, the proposed commission should "not rule out any potential solutions in advance--all spending and revenue related options should be on the table."
(emphasis as in the original)
The all options on the table talking point has already been confirmed by the two co-chairs now named to the commission by president Obama: former Clinton Chief of Staff, Erskin Bowles and former Senator Alan Simpson of Wyoming. In a weekend interview (http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20602085&sid=ajH_cxgJofnQ) on the Bloomberg News show Political Capital With Al Hunt, Bowles and Simpson also professed their desire to have Peterson's bagmen Conrad and Gregg join them on the commission.
Mr. Peterson, his foundation and the collaborators he has picked up along the way know what ails us and they are going to use what should properly be called The Peterson Commission as the delivery vector for their cure. The problem of course is that our cure is coming from the same crowd that intentionally infected us with their mortal canker (http://avalon.law.yale.edu/19th_century/jeffmes2.asp) in the first place.
What kind of crowd Peterson been running with? His career highlights include an early stint as CEO (http://blogs.wsj.com/deals/2009/06/02/pete-peterson-decries-old-spoiled-and-ungrateful-lehman-colleagues/tab/article/) of the later to be infamous Lehman Brothers, an appointment (http://www.brandt21forum.info/Bio_Peterson.htm) to the Independent Commission on International Development Issues headed by Socialist Internationale president (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialist_International) Willy Brandt, chairman of the New York Fed, chairman and chairman emeritus titles at The Council of Foreign Relations, and co-founder of the the Blackstone Group the outfit charged with funneling federal bailout money through AIG to Goldman Sachs and other undisclosed parties.
Among the options being put on the table for The Peterson Commission, the most novel is the Peterson Foundation's recommendation that American wage earners should be forced into participating in mandatory savings accounts
These worker saving accounts would be like what Social Security was originally sold to be - retirement savings accounts mandated by the federal government that workers (and their employers) would pay into during their working years so that they could have something to support themselves with in retirement. The twist on this version of the scam would be that this time there really would be individual accounts with a workers name on them. And a special bonus; rather than being managed by the federal government, they would be managed by private investment firms...like the Blackstone Group that Peter Peterson just happens to operate (http://www.serendipity.li/wot/blackstone_group.html).
Now voluntary savings would be one thing, but the adjective "mandatory" has been used. Peterson himself used the word during the live discussion that took place immediately following the premier showing of IOUSA in select theaters around the country. That interview is the copyrighted material of the Peterson Foundation. For now, all we have to titillate video fans is the short clip (http://bit.ly/d81lW5) of Peterson using the word "provocative" as he lead into his explanation of why mandatory savings are required.
We do have the Peterson Foundation down in writing though using the word "mandatory." The day after the premier of IOUSA, Peterson's hired gun, David Walker, former Arthur Anderson board member GAO director gave a presentation at a town hall meeting hosted by Virginia Congressman Jim Moran. On slide number 27 of Walker's presentation we read:
"Consider mandatory supplemental individual savings accounts on a payroll deduction basis (e.g., a minimum 2 percent payroll contribution and a program designed much like the Federal Thrift Savings Plan with a real trust fund and real investments)"
Saving Our Future
Slideshow presentation by Peter G. Peterson Foundation. (http://www.slideshare.net/PGPF/saving-our-future)
Click Above
Mandatory is not the only red flag in Walker's presentation. That the Peterson Foundation plan for all wage earners might be patterned on the Federal Thrift Savings Plan (FSP) is also provocative.
The FSP, available for federal employees like congressional staff workers, has over $200 billion of assets (on paper anyway). About half these assets are in special non-negotiable US Treasury notes issued especially for the FSP scheme. The other half are invested in stocks, bonds and other securities.
The US Treasury manages its IOU's in the plan. The nearly $100 billion in the other half of the plan is managed by (http://www.tsp.gov/rates/fundsheet-cfund.pdf) Blackrock Financial. And, yes, shock, Blackrock Financial (http://www.blackrockinvestments.com.au/SiloLocalContent/index.htm) is a creation of Mr. Peterson's Blackstone Group. In fact, the FSP and Blackstone were birthed almost as a matched set. It's tough to fail when you form an investment management company at the same time you can gain the contract that directs a percentage (http://www.tsp.gov/features/chapter04.html) of the Federal government payroll into your hands. Putting in the federal law that created the FSP the stipulation that the fund management company will have all voting rights (http://www.tsp.gov/faq/faq11.html) for the shares held was a nice touch too.
Mr. Peterson and his friends have demonstrated that they know well how to play the system. It is not hard to imagine that the Obama's bipartisan Peterson Commission will be used to develop a done deal, must pass piece of legislation to be introduced in the coming lame duck session of Congress.
Using the Peterson FSP scheme as a guide, we should expect then that among the many austerity measures to be initiated by this legislation will likely be a program that, under the guise of funding a retirement savings account, a percentage of every American worker's paycheck will be siphoned off into the control of Mr. Peterson and his fellow banking syndicate cronies. It is also likely that a significant portion of this mandatory retirement savings money will be earmarked for purchasing the ultimate supposed safe haven investment: U.S. Treasuries. That is, as the smart money begins to bail (http://www.istockanalyst.com/article/viewarticle/articleid/3861666) en masse from Treasury auctions, plans (http://market-ticker.denninger.net/archives/1830-401kIRA-Screw-Job-Coming.html) are already in the works to have Americans to buy their own toxic debt.
Americans will thus be forced into a new scheme under which they will be required to hold IOU's from the federal government. Mandatory savings accounts will be used as both a stealth social security tax increase and a guaranteed income stream for the likes of Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley and of course Mr. Peterson's Blackstone Group.
Bottom line: Mr. Peterson is not concerned about solving the nation's budget crisis as much as he is making sure that he doesn't miss a chance to line his own pockets at our expense. If we are smart we will kill The Peterson Commission before it gets off the ground. The best way to do this is to convince Republican minority leaders in the Congress that they should refuse to appoint Republican members to the commission.
Contact Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell (http://mcconnell.senate.gov/contact.cfm) of Kentucky and House GOP Leader John Boehner (http://johnboehner.house.gov/Contact/) of Ohio, immediately. Tell them that Republicans should not participate in a scheme designed to take advantage of a lame duck session of Congress. If what the Peterson Commission is planning is sincerely in the best interests of the American people, its recommendations should be made public either well BEFORE Congress adjourns for the November election, or AFTER the 112th Congress is seated in 2011. Anything done in between is sure to be devious.
Take action now, or you may soon be forcibly drafted into paying for dodgy US Treasuries out of your weekly paycheck — while handing some shady investment banker a transaction fee on top of it.
SOURCE:
http://www.jbs.org/blog/obama-executive-order-moves-mandatory-savings-account-scheme-forward.html