The War On Savers

The 'monarchs of money' and the war on savers

Very deliberately, the central bankers have punished savers, pushing interest rates so low that any truly safe investment — and older people are always advised to play it safe — yields a negative return when inflation is factored in. 

The policy has savaged pension and savings returns worldwide, but particularly in Britain, a nation of savers and pensioners.

There is more money in British pension funds than in the rest of Europe combined, and now that money is just sitting, "dead," as some call it, not working for its owners.

Ask Judy White, a retiree in her late 60s who lives in Teddington, south of London, with her husband, Alan. 

This year, the Bank of England shattered her retirement. Her pension benefit was effectively slashed by half.

"I don't understand what quantitative easing is, except that it's printing money," she says. "But I do understand that I now have 50 per cent less.

"What they have done is take money from people who have been really careful all their lives." 

My view:

It is not often, dear reader, that you will find an article from the CBC on this blog.

This one is an exception as the author has brought something from the blog sphere to a mainstream news channel.

Central Bankers are stealing your retirement pension and savings.

Sometimes it is obvious, such as the example of the English couple in the story that had their benefits cut 50%.

At other times it is hidden, when inflation of food items, gasoline, utilities, and property taxes rise.

The common theme is this - governments are using Central Banks to default on their promises to taxpayers.

For years they used the "soft default" method of inflation that reduces buying power.  But now that the economy is not responding to massive spending, they are resorting to "hard defaults".

This means direct reductions in pensions.

It means confiscation of bank deposits if a bank gets into trouble as the Cyprus example shows.

While the documentary did not offer any insights as to a "safe place" for your funds, one idea would be the physical possession of your own cash.  The proverbial mattress comes to mind.

The second "safe place" is the physical possession of precious metals.

While the paper market of precious metals has adjusted substantially in April, the physical market is another story.  Getting any significant amount of physical gold or silver could prove challenging without paying a large premium.

Once the general public starts to awaken to the financial debt calamity at hand, we can expect a surge in physical cash withdrawals and huge demand for precious metals.

While Central Bankers have been determined to "stimulate" the economy with near zero interest rates, the trajectory of the economy has not changed.  Even the theft of pension funds will not reverse the course we are on.

The debt stimulus is an epic fail.

The Keynesian and Monetarist theories that supported them have proved false.

The market is in a very long economic cycle that demands that the old, unproductive debt be purged from the system.

Efforts to fight it only make the adjustment worse.

We are headed into debt deflation whether we like it or not.  And precious metals perform well in deflation because they have no counter-party risk.

The best strategy is to adjust to the new reality and prepare, rather than live in a false state of denial hoping the government will bail us out.