The ongoing Greek and European economic debt crisis has been getting a lot of media attention in the U.S. recently, with dire warnings of impending global economic collapse, if the Greek debt crisis isn’t resolved.  It is not a new story.  The Early Retirement Blog has been covering the Greek and European economic crisis since it started over two years ago. 
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The reason for the increased attention from the banker and corporate owned U.S. media is due to the election of Socialist governments in Greece and France, which have renounced the policy of austerity (cuts to social services and tax hikes), that U.S. and European  puppet governments have used to pay off the banks.   The election of true socialist governments in Europe threatens the Wall Street and European bankers ability to get paid back in full on their fraudulent loans.
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So what? Who cares what happens to Greece and Europe? How does the Greek and European economic crisis affect Americans, and more specifically, how does it affect Americans’ retirements?

The Greek and European Economic crisis affects Americans and their retirements in two ways.

1. The banker policy of austerity began with increases in the retirement age and decreases in pension benefits.  In one of his first acts after being elected, French Socialist President Francois Hollande vowed to reduce the retirement age in France, after Sarkozy had increased it to please the bankers.

Socialist candidate for Prime Minister of Greece Alexis Tsipras put it best, “Greece has become a model for the rest of Europe because it was chosen as the experiment for the application of neoliberal shock [policies], and Greek people were the guinea pigs. If the experiment continues, it will be considered successful, and the policies will be applied in other countries. That is why it is so important to stop the experiment. It will not just be a victory for Greece but for all of Europe.”

And I might add, a victory for the American people, as the neo-liberal austerity policy of robbing workers of their retirements will continue to be applied in the U.S.  If Greece, France and other European countries can stop the bankers in Europe from robbing their people’s retirements, there is a good chance that Americans will be able to save their retirements from Wall Street and Washington. 
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2.  If the Greeks decide to default on their debt and leave the Euro, other major European countries may choose to follow, and the result will be major bank failures in Europe and the U.S. which would lead to a U.S. and global economic collapse.  This is why the financial press is paying so much attention to the Greek crisis and why our financial elites are so freaked out. Their wealth is on the line -  the stakes are that high.

What happens in Greece affects not just Greeks, Europeans, and the wealthy elite, but also average Americans and their ability to retire, and that is why the Early Retirement Blog has been paying attention to the European economic crisis from the beginning.

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Vive la France! Newly elected French President Francois Hollande, has vowed to reverse former President Nicolas Sarkozy’s decision to increase the country’s retirement age, and restore France’s retirement age to 60. Article.

After several years of governments in Europe and the U.S., increasing retirement ages and reducing pension benefits to balance budgets and pay off bankers, the move by France is one of the first victory’s for workers in the Global War on Retirement.  The plan will help 100,000 French workers and cost the government one billion Euros.

President Francois Hollande’s move to reduce France’s retirement age, although it initially costs the government, will be offset by lowering unemployment and increasing wages, which translates into lower government expenditures and higher tax revenues.  As I have written before – Early Retirement is the solution to ending the recession.

Let us hope that France marks the beginning of the end of governments looting worker retirements to benefit the banks and the wealthy.

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A shocking number of American seniors are retiring with student debt.  Two million seniors over age 60 have a combined total of $36.5 billion in student debt.  An average of $18,500 per senior.  And 11.2% of seniors with student debt are in default.

Unlike credit card, or medical bill debt, seniors can not get rid of their student loan debt by filing for bankruptcy.  And, to make senior student debt even more onerous, Social Security can be garnished to pay off the debt.

The reasons why American seniors are retiring with student debt is due to, debts that were incurred year earlier and forgotten, co-signing for student debt for their children, and for student loans taken out for re-education after layoffs in the hope of landing in a new job or career.  With the ongoing recession, many Americans nearing retirement age who took out student loans to get re-educated, have been unable to find jobs.

Americans aged 40 and over, who have reached the age at which they begin saving for retirement, hold nearly a third of student loan debt.  Student loan debt, not only reduces the retirement incomes of seniors in retirement, it also reduces the amount individuals and couples can save for retirement.

In the richest nation on earth, with a military budget larger than the rest of the world combined, student loan debt is a crime.  Americans should not have to go into debt and wage slavery to get an education.  Placing generations of Americans into lifetimes of debt servitude is the class war agenda of the wealthy elite.

What should American seniors and couples saving for retirement do about student loan debt?  The obvious first thing to do is avoid student loan debt.  The second thing to do is pay off student loan debt before you retire.  The third, if you have retired with student loan debt, is to pay off your debt if you can.

Retiring debt free increases your retirement income.  Read How to Retire Debt Free, to learn about strategies and tools, you can use to pay off your student loan debt before you retire.

Finally, if you have student loan debt, you should consider signing the Occupy Student Debt Campaign pledge, to send a message to our corrupt politicians and bankers.  Individually you have no power to change anything, Occupy has shown already that, working together we can change the world.

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The age at which the average American worker expects to retire, according to a Gallup poll, has gone up from 65 to 67 years old in the past two years.  In 1995, less than a generation ago, the average American worker expected to retire at 60.   The percentage of American workers who believe they can retire early has plunged, from 18% five years ago, to 13% today.

In less than 20 years, there has been a dramatic, and significant shift in the retirement expectations of Americans.

Retirement insecurity is also on the rise.  For the first time a majority of workers (55%), believe they will not have enough money to live comfortably in retirement, up from 32% in 2002.   Obviously, these depressing polling numbers, are a result of the economic collapse and recession.

Most American workers believe that they need to delay their retirements and do not expect to enjoy a secure retirement.   Beliefs which have a profoundly negative effect on individuals and on the prospects of an economic recovery. Why? Because early retirement is the solution to ending the recession.

However, despite worker’s retirement insecurity and expressed belief and desire to retire at a later age, the polling discovered that the actual retirement age of workers has remained constant at 60 for the past decade.  Why? Because many older workers are forced into early retirement due to layoffs or for health reasons.

That’s the bad news.  Now for the good news.  You can still retire early.  Why? Because Wall Street financial planners. use a formula that overestimates the amount of savings you need for retirement, forcing you to work years longer than necessary.  A formula for turning workers into wage slaves.

Wall Street earns billions of dollars every year, by keeping millions of Americans working, and starts losing money when workers retire.  The truth is that you can retire when you want, at any age, it all depends on how much you choose to spend in retirement.  You control how much savings you need for retirement and when you can retire.

Try the Free Early Retirement Calculator to calculate how much savings you need based on how much you plan to spend in retirement.

And the even better news is that now you can avoid the Wall Street financial planners, who profit by keeping you working, and plan your own retirement for free.

Free Early Retirement Software, brought to you by Green Retirement, enables individuals and couples to easily and accurately plan, manage, achieve, and maintain, a safe and secure retirement for free.  No more guessing, wondering, or worrying.  Choose how much you want to save each month for retirement, how much you can spend in retirement, and when you will retire.

The new retirement age is not 67, 65, or 60.  Thanks to Free Retirement Planning, the new retirement age, is any age you want.

Learn more and Download:  Free Retirement Software

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I was surprised to hear President Obama use the phrases Social Darwinism, and Trojan Horse, to describe Rep. Paul Ryan’s budget proposal.  Not because it is not true, Paul Ryan’s budget is indeed Social Darwinism, but because he brought into the open the philosophy behind his own wealthy elite supporters, and those of the other half of the corporate party duopoly – the Republicans.

In fact, Obama choked on the phrase Social Darwinism, signaling that he had reservations on using the term.  Perhaps because he realizes he is as guilty as the Republicans in advancing a Social Darwinism agenda for the United States and the world.  And perhaps because Obama knows full well, that he himself is the Trojan Horse for the wealthy elite, bankers, and corporations.

Obama, an ethnic minority from a middle class background, is the perfect Trojan Horse candidate.  Able to succeed, where elitist George Bush never could, in robbing the American people of their retirements.

Obama’s use of the phrase Social Darwinism probably left many people asking “What is Social Darwinism?”  Wikipedia does a poor job of defining Social Darwinism and it’s context in current affairs.  So, I would like to explain what Social Darwinism is and how it applies to retirement.

Social Darwinism is the application of Charles Darwin’s theory of Natural Selection, survival of the fittest, to society as a whole.  Where the fittest and superior members of society gain wealth and prosper, while the weakest and inferior members of society remain poor and perish.

Social Darwinism is, and has been for generations, the philosophical world view of the wealthy 1% elite.  The wealthy elite use Social Darwinism to explain why they are rich while others are poor.  “I am rich because I am genetically superior.”

Applied to retirement, Social Darwinism goes like this:  “I worked hard and saved, created a successful company, or was born into a wealthy family, therefore I can retire.  You,  because you are stupid or lazy, or for whatever reason, did not work hard and save, therefore you cannot retire.  Too bad – survival of the fittest.”

It goes on, “My hard work and savings should not go to pay for the retirement of stupid and lazy people.  To do so would only encourage stupidity and laziness, create a disincentive for hard work and saving, and be bad for society as a whole.”  Society advances by promoting the fittest members and eliminating the weakest.”

Social Darwinism explains the Class War motivations of men like Pete Peterson, an extremely wealthy investor, workaholic chairman of the sleazy Black Stone Group, who has been on a lifelong crusade to destroy retirement.  These Social Darwinists have created think tanks, fake grass roots organizations, funded politicians, with the sole intention of destroying retirement.

They do not believe, in fact they hate and resent the idea, that they are being taxed so that genetically inferior lazy stupid people can retire at the age of 62 or at any age.

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The suicide of a retired 77 year old Greek pensioner in front of Greece’s parliament building, should be a wake-up call to seniors and retirees in Europe and the U.S., your suicide could be next if you continue to remain silent.

In his suicide note, pinned to the tree where his lifeless body lay,  Dimitris Christoulas wrote, “I find no other solution than a dignified end before I start searching through the trash for food.”  After paying into the Greek pension system for 35 years, banker imposed pension cuts, left the retired pharmacist with apparently no choice but to end his life.

This was not a suicide, as some people in Greece are saying, but instead a deliberate murder caused by the global banking cartel.  While the retiree is being buried in Greece, bankers and hedge fund managers in London, Connecticut and Wall Street, are counting their profits.  His death is but collateral damage in their global war on retirement.

Two years ago when the Greek bail-out drama began, I wrote “Your Big Fat Greek Retirement“, to warn readers that what is happening in Greece will eventually affect everyone.  After the bankers have devoured Greece, they will move on to Spain, Italy, England, and eventually the U.S.  The bankers will not stop destroying retirements and lives until they are stopped by the people.

Bankers own the politicians, the main stream media, the courts, labor unions, interest groups, think tanks, the police, all the institutions of power.  Appeals to politicians to save us from the bankers will be met with silent disregard.  Petitions are pointless.  Groups like Evil AARP, whose supposed mission is to protect the interests of seniors, have been co-opted and corrupted.

For two years, bankers have been raiding retirements and pensions throughout Europe and the U.S., with no resistance coming from seniors and retirees.  Why?  I want to know.  Do you think your retirement is safe? As a former banker myself, I can tell you, that you are not safe.  The bankers will not stop until you are eating food out of the trash or you kill yourself.

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Add Poland to the list of countries under attack in the Global War on Retirement.   The labor union Solidarity, whose actions beginning in the 1980′s led to the eventual downfall of Communism, has once again taken to the streets to protest the Polish government’s attempt to raise the retirement age.

The retirement age in Poland is currently, 60 years old for women, and 65 years old for men.  The Polish government wants to raise the retirement age to 67 for everyone.  Raising the retirement age is the first and preferred tactic, used by banks, to rob the people of one of the last assets they have left.

Here is why banks are going after retirement in country after country in Europe and North America.  The banks loaned countries billions of dollars of debt, then created a global housing bubble which crashed the global economy, causing a global recession which starved countries of tax revenues needed to pay retirement benefits the governments owe their people.

Governments have a choice, pay the banks who crashed their economy, or pay their people who paid taxes to fund their retirements.  Governments in Europe and North America have been taken over by the banks.  The people and their retirements must be sacrificed to the gods of finance.  The Global War on Retirement will continue, until seniors and workers take to the streets, and actually overthrow a government or two.

Poland was the beginning of the end of Communism.  Will Poland be the beginning of the end of banker capitalism?

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Why Oil and Gas Prices are High

Since high oil and gas prices impacts seniors and retirees, as well as the ability of working Americans to save for retirement, allow me to explain why oil and gas prices are so high.

President Obama has blamed loose talk of war on Iran by politicians and pundits, for causing speculators and traders to bid up the price of oil and gas, out of fear of supply disruptions in the future.  President Obama is half-right. The other half of the blame for high oil and gas prices, as well as half of the inflated price, belongs to President Obama and the Federal Reserve.

Like the last time their was talk of bombing Iran, which sent the price of crude to nearly $150 per barrel, the past few months of Iran war hysteria has increased the the price of a barrel of oil $30 from $80 to $110 per barrel.    Even if peace suddenly broke out between Israel, the U.S., and Iran, and the price of oil dropped $30 per barrel back to $80 per barrel, the price of oil would still be $30 too high.

Read: Inflation Deflation

The price of a barrel of oil should be $50 per barrel.  You should be paying half as much as you are right now for a gallon of gas.  Taking out the war speculation, the reason why oil and gas prices are so high, is because of President Obama’s budget deficits and the Federal Reserve’s zero interest rate policy.

Here is why and how budget deficits and zero interest rates cause high oil and gas prices.  President Obama’s budget deficits forces the Treasury to sell more bonds, which puts more dollars in circulation, which devalues the dollar, which means it takes more dollars to buy the same barrel of oil.

Ben Bernanke and the Federal Reserve’s zero interest rate policy punishes savers and rewards speculators.   Faced with earning zero returns on bonds, a dead real estate market, and the aforementioned dollar devaluing budget deficits, investors put their savings into stocks and commodities, both to earn higher returns and to protect the value of their savings.

The combination of budget deficits and zero interest rates, is responsible for half of the inflated price of oil,  the other half belongs to Iran war speculation.

When will the price of oil and gas go down?  Aware of the political and economic consequences of a war with Iran, President Obama is doing what he can to take war (and war talk) with Iran off the table, until after the presidential elections.  Speculators have not responded by selling off their oil futures positions, still hoping that they will be able to profit from an Israeli unilateral attack on Iran, and waiting to see what impact the recent oil embargo on Iran will have on oil supply and demand.

It is highly probable that President Obama will be successful in bringing oil prices down to pre-war talk levels of $80-$90 per barrel, which will bring some relief to consumers, and boost his chances of being re-elected.  But that’s all the relief consumers are going to get.

Ben Bernanke and the Federal Reserve recently announced they will maintain their zero interest rate policy for the next two years.  So, the price of oil and gas will remain artificially high for the next two years, reducing the retirement income and savings for seniors and workers.

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The U.K. Granny Tax, a budget proposal by George Osborne and David Cameron to reduce the benefits of British pensioners, while reducing income taxes on the wealthiest British wage earners, is yet another example of the Global War on Retirement.

From the beginning of the global recession, banker and wealthy elite owned and controlled governments in the U.S., U.K., and Europe, have sought to balance their budgets on the backs of seniors, and by targeting future and current retirement benefits.

Having not received any significant resistance from seniors or the wider public, governments are now going even further in their class war schemes, by dredging up the failed trickle down economics ideology of creating growth through tax cuts for the wealthy.

Transferring wealth from large numbers of seniors and retirees, to a small percentage of the wealthy, will not create jobs, will not create economic growth, and will not balance budgets.  In fact, it will have the opposite effect, and only worsen the global recession.  Seniors and retirees spend, not save, their retirement income and savings.  Spending which creates economic growth.

The wealthy elite will either save their tax cuts, pay off their debts, or invest in stock speculation.  If the governments were economically and intellectually honest, not the corrupt corporate whores they really are, they would encourage early retirement and  increase retirement benefits for seniors by increasing taxes on the wealthy.

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According to the article, which you can read here, AARP CEO Barry Rand has invited the who’s who of Washington elites intent on cutting Social Security and Medicare to a “Relaxed and Robust Evening of ‘Salon Style’ Conversation” on “strengthening” Social Security.

Invitees include; Tom Donohue of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, John Engler of the Business Roundtable group for corporate CEOs, and David Walker, a noted deficit alarmist and former head of the Government Accountability Office.

The invitation begins, “Hope you are well. On behalf of AARP, I am writing to extend an invitation to you to attend a high-level discussion with AARP CEO A. Barry Rand and other national thought leaders on Strengthening Social Security: Facing up to the Challenge.

In typical Orwellian double-think that dominates Washington, the jackals and hyenas who want to devour your retirement will be gathering at the same time that AARP launches a national “listening” tour titled, “You’ve earned a say. We’re listening”, to offer AARP members a chance to discuss their concerns regarding Social Security and Medicare.

Pure evil.  Last year, AARP got busted, when it’s board voted to drop it’s opposition to Social Security and Medicare cuts.  Irate AARP members forced the insurance company to backtrack on it’s vote.  AARP sells out it’s members again.  AARP, which has the word retirement in it’s name, is doing everything it can to get into bed with those who want to kill retirement.

If you are an AARP member, go to one of their bogus town halls or go to their online site, and let them know what you think of their deception and duplicity.  Then cancel your membership and buy your insurance somewhere else.

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