401k and USA pensions

stinktankcynic

I was reading a couple of stories on the internet, somewhat speculative about the USA pensions. Apparently they can get access to their pension cash, and they don' t have to buy annuities, is this correct? The story then went on to say the authorities may nationalise the private pensions amend pay people a government annuity. I read that some countries had nationalised private pension funds. Something to watch out for. Could the UK government grasp UK pension funds and pay an annuity at a retirement date in the further? Especially so with the deficit and economic problems.

bigadaj

Extremely unlikely as that would absolutely destroy confidence in in invest,ent in the UK. We've obviously had raids on elements before.
, probably most famously Gordon browns raid on dividends in pensions. The consequences Lso in terms of people not saving for retirement and pushing people back onto relying on the state pension and benefits would in themselves destroy the economy.

There have been raids on foreign companies in less developed economies, but this often has a nationalistic basis as in Argentinas raiding of oil rights. Interestingly this can be beneficial in some terms, as Argentinas default in the late nineties had been totally dissipated within ten years in terms of the credit rating, ie less pain and easier than Greece for example.

However tryi g to steal from your own population is a far riskier proposition and extremely unlikely.

atush

How would any politician who supported this get re elected?

something to think about if you don't live in an actual democracy perhaps? Like maybe Argentina in the 70s-80s?