CLibertyC

Retirement crisis: Impoverished seniors on horizon

"American households are so strapped that only half could come up with $2,000 in cash if an unexpected need arose in the next month. You would think that savings levels would increase, but no. The percentage reporting saving anything for retirement is at 66 percent, down from 75 percent in 2009. In a little more than a decade, there will be a lot of older people who will run out of money. There will be stories written in 2025 about Joe Smith, 82, a retired autoworker, living in a flophouse on $2,100 a month in Social Security after his pension was cut off and his personal savings ran out, while his children, in their 60s themselves, moved 2,000 miles away." Continue reading →

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Can Your Edward Jones Financial Advisor Really Serve Your Best Interests?

"Edward Jones agreed, without admitting any wrongdoing, to a $75 million regulatory settlement with the SEC for allegedly failing to disclose that it received tens of millions of dollars from preferred mutual fund partners each year on top of commissions and other fees. Investors shouldn't need to worry that they're getting fleeced by the very person who's being paid to advise them. Investors are at greater risk of being taken advantage of when their advisor is not required to put them first, has strong economic incentives to generate fees, and doesn't need to disclose those conflicts of interest in a particularly clear way." Continue reading →

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Wire Fraud: A Terrifying New Trend Targeting Financial Advisors

"A disturbing new trend is that some thieves are beginning to directly target financial advisors and their clients – as famous bank robber Willie Sutton noted, if you want to get rich by stealing, go to where the money is! Accordingly, financial advisors and investment custodians have seen a noticeable increase in attempts at fraudulent wire transfers by 'spoofing' – where a request sent 'from the client' is actually a spoof from a fake-but-similar email account (or sometimes is even the client’s actual account!), and asks the advisor to process a wire transfer to a third party bank account. By the time anyone realizes the request was fake, the money is already gone." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingWire Fraud: A Terrifying New Trend Targeting Financial Advisors

Four Men Busted for Stealing Hundreds of Thousands From Bank Accounts Using Fake Credit Cards

"Lots of lessons here. Protect your bank account numbers and passwords. Its less likely that an individual will steal your funds than the government but you still need to be careful. Also note the advancement in private surveillance, the bank was able to detect the fradulent withdrawal of funds in real time, grab a picture of the suspects and get it it the police in apparently minutes." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingFour Men Busted for Stealing Hundreds of Thousands From Bank Accounts Using Fake Credit Cards

IRS Star Trek Spoof (Cost To Taxpayers: $60,000)

"The US Internal Revenue Service spent $60,000+ of your money to produce this terrible Star Trek spoof. Despite being really bad, the film does demonstrate the culture of government: You, the citizens, are tax cattle to be farmed for the state. Without genius central planners civilization itself would fall." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingIRS Star Trek Spoof (Cost To Taxpayers: $60,000)

Harry Browne: The Coming Devaluation (Sept. 3, 1970)

"Taped Sept 3, 1970, this insightful economic conversation remains relevant today. Note Mr. Browne predicts that, 'as an act of economic desperation,' our government will have to 'renege on their promise to foreign governments to pay one ounce of gold for every $35 turned in at the Treasury.' On August 15, 1971, the Nixon Administration did so." Continue reading →

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Robert Wenzel: An Examination of Key Factors in the Collapse of the Soviet Union

"The Henry Hazlitt Memorial Lecture, sponsored by James M. Rodney, presented at the Austrian Economics Research Conference. Recorded 21 March 2013 at the Ludwig von Mises Institute. Includes an introduction by Joseph T. Salerno." Continue reading →

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Cyprus vs Bankocracy: ‘Mattress better place to keep cash than banks’

"Thousands of Cypriots are celebrating, after the country's Parliament gave a resounding no vote to the EU-IMF bailout package. The move could have seen the government take up to 10% of people's savings, from private bank accounts - as a precondition to securing the much needed 10 billion euro loan. Now that it's been rejected, the ailing Eurozone member will have to work out another plan to avoid bankruptcy." Continue reading →

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The Drug Warriors Cashing In on Pot Prohibition

"When eight former DEA chiefs signed a letter to US Attorney General Eric Holder earlier this month, demanding that the feds crack down on Washington and Colorado, there was more than just drug-war ideology at stake. Two of the elder drug warriors, Peter Bensinger (DEA chief, 1976–1981) and Robert DuPont (White House drug chief, 1973–1977), run a corporate drug-testing business. Their company, Bensinger, DuPont & Associates, holds the pee stick for some 10 million employees around the US, including Kraft Foods, American Airlines, Johnson & Johnson, the Federal Aviation Administration and even the Justice Department itself." Continue reading →

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The Pot Industry’s Most Politically Important Dispensary

"Earlier this week, Reps. Jared Polis and Earl Blumenauer visited a marijuana dispensary. They were just blocks away from their congressional offices, and within months, certain D.C. residents will be able to come here to legally choose from more than a dozen strains of medical marijuana, from Master Kush to Blue Dream. The walls will be packed with vaporizers, water pipes, and pre-rolled joints. There will be THC lollipops, baked goods, and cookbooks. Just blocks away from the Capitol, it may soon become one of the most politically important marijuana distribution centers in the country." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingThe Pot Industry’s Most Politically Important Dispensary