If indeed the stock market is only supported by the Fed's quantitative easing policy then there is really no escape. Maybe gold but certainly not cash. If the Fed creates too much "money" there will be a currency crisis and the value of money will be something close to 0. Remember currency including the dollar is a fia...more

Clint Eastwood is an actor. Actors communicate by telling stories by acting them out. Actors do not give political speeches using teleprompters, those people are called politicians. Clint Eastwood did what he does. Told a story about Obama from his perspective. Message, Obama does waht he wants and tells the ...more

This is satire at its best by a master actor. Actors have always communicated by telling stories in weird ways. Sorry most Americans are not bright enough to get the point. Old Piece of Italian literature called the fox..go Clint. You are the fox Too bad your satire is not understood by the electorate but that ...more

PaleoII Yes you are correct. We all need to get educated on how to manage our retirement withdrawal strategy. It is actually more difficult to manage the withdrawal stage and assure that your money does not run out then it is to manage the accumulation phase and assure you have enough money to start retirement. As ...more

Disillusioned You make a well thought out case for the difficulty in saving for retirement. Yes  you must first cover nondiscretionary expenses and you note quite correctly that you can control these expenses to a certain extent but there is interference in some markets that distorts. In my humble opinion saving fo...more

Disillusioned, The amount you need to retire is based on your lifestyle which of course in driven by your preretirement income. So if you earn 30,000 per year you need somewhere between 80 and 100 percent of this income or 24,000 to 30,000 dollars per year when you start retirement and if you want it to last 30 years...more

Yes jog good point. I was assuming that your salary would increase at inflation maybe a bad assumption. If this is the case this would help with inflation adjusted contributions each year if you go with a straight 15% of income as a contribution. Actually the employee contribution can be lower with a 401k employer ma...more

OK I am a finance professor so I could not resist. Let's look at this with some realism. A 25 year old wilt a 40,000 per year salary will need an annual income of 130,481 to match the purchasing power of 40,000 today with an average 3% per year inflation rate. The 3% rate has been an average for many years but with Q...more

Here is something to think about. Yes taxes will go up. You can't spend 24% of GDP and collect 18% forever but you also cannot close that gap with an income tax. It is just not politically feasible. The answer is a consumption tax like the VAT. This is how all high consumption countries fund their social programs. My...more