Argentina first, USA second

Argentina's governent, at risk of default, recently seized the nation's private pension funds to give the goverment access to millions of dollars of savings. The government does not plan to use this money to pay retirees or allow them to keep that which they have saved, instead it will use money to pay its current debts and current expenses. It will "give" the retirees government debt in exchange for their cash and investments. Considering its debt is already in danger of default, this is a horrible deal for Argentinian investors (and the stock market there shows the results). What can they do? It is the law to fork over your savings to the government now.

It could not happen here, right? Wrong...

According to this, not only will the tax-free status of our 401(k) be at risk, so too will the initial investments. The ultimate aim of this will be to seize your assets (cash and investments) and replace them with a government bond (an IOU). The fact that you already could have all your 401(k) investments in a government bond by choice notwithstanding. That means, your right to choose your investments will actually be taken away. Quoting from the article "Democrats will seize on the opportunity [the financial crisis] to attack a program where investors control their own destiny"

Watch for the coming inflation (another way to confiscate savings)!

J. Thyme Matz