Financial Data One-Way Street

As the US government disclosure continues to diminish and the government continues to refuse to find money missing from its coffers or explain why it has refused to produce audited financial statement for the last fourteen years, it creates more and more rules for everyone else to disclose the financial information of American citizens to it.

Excerpt: “Obama also planned to ask Congress to crack down on tax havens and implement a major shift in the way courts view guilt. Under Obama’s proposal, Americans would have to prove they were not breaking U.S. tax laws by sending money to banks that don’t cooperate with tax officials. It essentially would reverse the long-held assumption of innocence in U.S. courts.”

If financial institutions cooperate with Washington and disclose details when asked, Americans could invest anywhere they like.

Read the full article . . .

3 Comments

  2. It’s a one way street all right

    Some investors in 401(k) retirement funds who are moving to grab their money are finding they can’t.

    Even with recent gains in stocks such as Monday’s, the months of market turmoil have delivered a blow to some 401(k) participants: freezing their investments in certain plans. In some cases, individual investors can’t withdraw money from certain retirement-plan options. In other cases, employers are having trouble getting rid of risky investments in 401(k) plans.

    When Ed Dursky was laid off from his job at a manufacturing company in March, he couldn’t withdraw $40,000 from his 401(k) retirement account invested in the Principal U.S. Property Separate Account.

    That fund, which invests directly in office buildings and other properties, had stopped allowing most investors to make withdrawals last fall as many of its holdings became hard to sell.

    Now Mr. Dursky, of Ottumwa, Iowa, is looking for work and losing patience. All he wants, he said, is his money…

    Individual investors mightn’t even be aware of some behind-the-scenes maneuvers causing liquidity problems in their retirement plans. Many funds offered in 401(k) plans lend their portfolio holdings to other investors, receiving in exchange collateral that they invest in normally safe, liquid holdings.

    The aim is often to generate a small but relatively reliable return that can help offset fund expenses. But in recent months, many of the collateral investments have gone haywire, prompting money managers to restrict retirement plans’ withdrawals from the lending funds.

    Investors in the Principal U.S. Property Separate Account said they understood the risk of losses, but didn’t think their money could be locked up for months or years. Most participants in the 15,000 plans holding the fund haven’t been able to make any withdrawals or transfers since late September.

    “To sell property at inappropriately low prices in order to generate cash for a few would hurt the majority of investors and violate our fiduciary obligations,” said Terri Hale, spokeswoman for Principal Financial Group Inc., the parent of the fund’s manager

    -How does she know that these properties are priced “inappropriately” low. That’s what pisses me off with these clowns. Have a bubble and suddenly bubble prices are supposed to be the norm. Here in Denver, we have houses all over the place that are realistically $100,000-175,000 that are priced anywhere from $300,000-600,000. Knocking $10,000 off the asking price is considered a “bargain”.

    http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124148012581385199.html

  3. will someone talk or comment on “mortgage insurance”.all of these “iffy” loans are always set up to make the or force the buyer to add mortgage insurance, so when all these people defaulted those mortgages, insurance policies had to come into play, making these mortgage insrance companys responsable for paying these banks the balance of the defaulted loans.whats the story?

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