Two Former Social Security Officials Admit The System Is Not Much Different from a Ponzi Scheme

www.SchiffRadio.com

-Charles Blahous (One of two public trustees for Social Security & Medicare)
-Andrew Biggs (Former principal deputy commissioner at the Social Security Administration )

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[spat846]

Working and Working but getting Nowhere.

Big Banks controll our money, Big Oil our world energy resources, Big Media our information, Big Pharma our health,and other corporate predators exploiting our lives for profit. Freemen we call ourselves and live in the richest country in the world, but they have looted and enslaved us. After a century of presperity we Americans must go to the Emerging countries and say, may we borrow a few of dollars to feed ourselves . What is the matter with us?

[Ragnarokgn]

@flanksteak2 SS isn't welfare, or that isn't how it was sold(or voter approved). It is a retirement fund ran by the government where people pay into the system and only those people withdraw from it. It is now a welfare system where one generation is paying for the retirement of another. The old need it because they lived their life with the expectation of it, but if the young do the same they will have nothing.

PS: Democracy is not Liberty. 2 wolves and a lamb vote on the dinner menu.

[jburdman7]

This may be the best thing on youtube.

Another must see is "Government debt and you"

[TheFreezer872]

@flanksteak2 No, believe me you're putting way too much emphasis on GLB. AIG itself was composed of insurance and financial products/services back in the 70's, well before GLB. Banks have always managed risks via swaps. Derivatives have always been around.

Why don't you consider the ratings agency oligarchy- made possible by gov't regulations- as to why they rated MBS as AAA? Or why FMAE/FMAC pushed for low-income housing (via capital and policy)? Or how about the home buyers themselves?

[flanksteak2]

@TheFreezer872 The problem was allowing insurance companies, neighborhood banks and wall-street to interact.

Without GLB, these interactions would never have occurred and there never would have been a push nor would the capital have been available to create the housing bubble.

[TheFreezer872]

@flanksteak2 CDSwaps (cap reqts or what not) but the buyers shouldn't be scapegoated even if they were naked or insuring more than what they owned. Blame can be distributed among AIGFP's risk mgmt/poor diversification, ratings agencies, underwriter insider info, homeowners (many of these problems due to gov't regs in the 1st place I might add) but not CDS's.

Basically, it's like blaming puts for a shitty stock plummeting. Measures like these to hedge risk actually provide balance.

[TheFreezer872]

@flanksteak2 Sure b/c it wasn't insurance in the classical sense of say life ins. but CDS's- unaffected from GLB. If anything, the CFMAct put some minor anti-fraud regs on it from otherwise being unregulated due to its unique nature- not quite ins., not quite a security. I won't pretend to know all the complexities, but I know they aren't considered ins. b/c of constant mark to market collateral reqts- something GS used to extort the shit outta AIG.

I think I'd be for regs on the seller of

[flanksteak2]

@TheFreezer872 Could AIG have insured Mortgage debt for Goldman Sachs without GLB?

[TheFreezer872]

@flanksteak2 For one, if I put my money in banks and got a free bailout, I'd be in good shape! But it would be pretty hard to retire on 1% interest.

Basically, you think it's impossible to generate a retirement fund w/o the gov't? Who says I couldn't get a better ROI than SS can? If I fuck up, that's on me and I'll have to deal w/o any gov't safety net. Many people rely more on pensions, 401Ks..anyway and their SS gets slashed in half, so your argument is already invalid for those.

[TheFreezer872]

@flanksteak2 There are also people who believe in Scientology w/o evidence... what's your point?

Staying on topic, can you elaborate on how GLB directly caused it? Was it b/c banks which merged could now underwrite and/or hold derivatives like MBS, CDOs..?

But banks could already do that, not just IBs..plus not many merged b/c of different PP&E needs and customer base, much like why banks didn't want to merge w/ insurance co's- see why Travelers didn't work w/ CITI.

So what else?