Tag: cabal

Bernanke’s Former Advisor: “People Would Be Stunned To Know The Extent To Which The Fed Is Privately Owned”

Tyler Durden's picture

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 04/11/2016 23:33 -0400

With every passing day, the Fed is slowly but surely losing the game.

Only it is not just former (and in some cases current) Fed presidents admitting central banks are increasingly powerless to boost the global economy, even if they still have sway over capital markets. What is far more insidious to the Fed’s waning credibility is when former economists affiliated with the Fed start repeating mantras that until recently were only a prominent feature in the so-called fringe media.

This is precisely what happened today when former central bank staffer and Dartmouth College economics professor Andrew Levin, special adviser to then Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke between 2010 to 2012, joined with an activist group to argue for overhauls at the central bank that they say would distance it from Wall Street and make its activities more transparent and accountable to the public.

Levin is pressing for the overhaul with Fed Up coalition activists. Many of the proposed changes target the 12 regional Federal Reserve Banks, which are quasi-private and technically owned by commercial banks in their respective districts.

All of that is not surprising. What he said to justify his new found cause, however, is.

“A lot of people would be stunned to know” the extent to which the Federal Reserve is privately owned, Mr. Levin said. The Fed “should be a fully public institution just like every other central bank” in the developed world, he said in a conference call announcing the plan. He described his proposals as “sensible, pragmatic and nonpartisan.”

Continue reading “Bernanke’s Former Advisor: “People Would Be Stunned To Know The Extent To Which The Fed Is Privately Owned””

SENIOR CITIZENS DOING BACK FLIPS OVER $22 MONTHLY SOCIAL SECURITY INCREASE

I’m sure my senior citizen mother is doing backflips today like the old guy in this video.

The government, out of the kindness of their hearts, and using the bastardized, manipulated and understated CPI, is giving all 64 million retired Americans a 1.7% raise in their Social Security checks in 2015. That amounts to about $22 per month for the average retiree. That’s $5 per week. I bet 64 million cranky old farts are headed out for the early bird special tonight to celebrate.

Think about the ridiculousness of the government telling a senior citizen their cost of living has only gone up 1.7% in the last year. Beef prices are up 20%. I do the grocery shopping and I can say for sure that my entire bill is up 20% over last year. Obamacare has pushed healthcare costs up by double digits in the last three years. Deductibles are twice as high and premiums are up 5% to 15%. Utility bills have been soaring by over 10% in the last year. Seniors are getting 0% on their savings due to the morally bankrupt Federal Reserve. That extra $22 per month will be gone in an instant.

Just when I think the MSM can’t sink any lower, the faux journalist mouthpieces for the oligarchs at Marketwatch put out the most outlandish piece of shit I’ve ever had to read without gagging.

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/7-things-retirees-should-do-with-their-20-cost-of-living-increase-2014-10-22?link=MW_home_latest_news

These pitiful excuses for journalists actually had the balls to write an article recommending what seniors should do with this “extra” $20 per month. These blithering idiots actually are willing to perpetuate the lie that this miniscule pittance can be used for something other than keeping these seniors from freezing to death this winter because they can’t pay their heating bill.

Some of the brilliant ideas include:

  • Acting like a good muppet and investing it in the market. Brilliant. My mom can buy 1/20 of a share of Amazon per month with her windfall.
  • Buying a nice bottle of wine to go with their can of Friskies for dinner.
  • Paying down the debt they’ve accumulated over a lifetime. At $20 per month, they should have it paid off by the time they reach the age of 265.
  • Paying those utility bills so the big corporation doesn’t turn off their gas in January.
  • Hire an illegal alien housekeeper to clean up your cardboard box a couple times per month.
  • Treat yourself to a steak once per month as a change of pace from that Kibble and Ramen noodles.
  • Live it up and go to the movies once per month. You should go see Idiocracy so you will understand how the writers of this article got their University of Phoenix college degrees in journalism.

You think I’m joking, but these are the actual recommendations made by “journalists” working for Rupert Murdoch’s Marketwatch. There are just some things that push my buttons and make me lose my cool. This is one of them. Senior citizens have been thrown under the bus by Ben Bernanke, Janet Yellen, Obama, and the rest of this corrupt cabal of oligarchs. Let them eat cake has been replace by let them eat cat food.

 

Ben Bernanke now gets $250,000 for an hour long speech where he takes credit for keeping bankers from experiencing a 2nd Great Depression. Too bad tens of millions of non-bankers are experiencing a 2nd Great Depression. If there is justice in this world, Bennie will swing from a lamppost before this episode in history concludes.

Via Christian Science Monitor

Social Security payments will increase 1.7 percent for retirees in 2015

Social Security payments for 64 million retired American workers will increase 1.7 percent in 2015. That means the typical retiree will get an extra $22 per month, receiving a $1,328 average monthly Social Security payment and $15,936 annually.

By Schuyler Velasco, Staff writer

  • Elaine Thompson/AP/File

Social Security isn’t going anywhere. Not yet, anyway.

Monthly payments for 64 million retired American workers will increase 1.7 percent in 2015, the Social Security Administration announced Wednesday. That means the typical retiree will get an extra $22 per month, receiving a $1,328 average monthly payment and $15,936 annually.

“The 1.7 percent cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) will begin with benefits that more than 58 million Social Security beneficiaries receive in January 2015,” The Social Security Administration said in the announcement. “Increased payments to more than 8 million SSI [Supplemental Security Income] beneficiaries will begin on December 31, 2014. The Social Security Act ties the annual COLA to the increase in the Consumer Price Index as determined by the Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics.”

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The increase coincides with the Labor Department’s monthly Consumer Price Index release for September. Thanks largely to falling energy costs, CPI increased just 0.1 percent last month and (you guessed it) 1.7 percent from last year. Food costs, however, jumped 3 percent, meaning the overall increase may be more acutely felt by seniors who don’t commute to work every day (thus getting less relief from the drop in gas prices).

This is the third straight COLA increase for Social Security recipients. This year’s cost of living increase was 1.5 percent; in 2012, it was a comparatively giant 3.2 percent. There were no benefits increases during the two previous years because consumer prices fell during the recession.

The SSA announced other changes as well. Based on wage increases, the maximum amount of earnings subjected to the Social Security taxes will increase to $118,500 from $117,000. The SSA estimates that out of 168 million workers who pay Social Security taxes, around 10 million will pay higher taxes because of the hike in the taxable minimum.

As in other years, this year’s increase comes amid worries about the long-term future of Social Security and Americans’ financial readiness for their retirement years. The Social Security Trust fund is projected to run out by 2033, according to an SSA Trustee report released this year, and the oncoming rush of retiring and aging Baby Boomers are expected to create steep budgetary problems in the coming years. Some 80 percent of Millennials and Gen-Xers don’t expect to receive anything from Social Security after their working years, according to a study released by the TransAmerica Center for Retirement Studies over the summer.

There are concerns in the short term as well. By at least one measure, retirees in 49 of 50 states aren’t replacing enough of their pre-retirement income. Social Security makes up about 38 percent of total income for the elderly, according to the SSA, and 52 percent of married couples and 74 percent of unmarried persons receive over half their income from Social Security.

For 1 in 3 retirees, it is their only income source. Basic costs of living, especially food prices, continue to balloon, and nearly 10 percent of retirees live in poverty, according to the Census Bureau.

Still, there is some cause for optimism. Perhaps because of their doubts, younger workers (at least the ones with access to employee-sponsored accounts) are shaping up to be excellent savers, and not all is lost with Social Security in general. Despite the trust fund depletion and funding shortfalls,  the SSA still anticipates being able to pay 75 percent of scheduled benefits between 2033 and 2088.