Another rotten retirement scheme from a Wall Street front group

[Newsjock]

Source: Los Angeles Times

Two founders of Third Way, a Washington think tank that carries water for Wall Street by pretending to be a "centrist" organization, have come out with a new proposal for a mass retirement program that, yes, will line Wall Street's pockets while promising the average worker something it can't deliver.

The promoters are Jonathan Cowan and Jim Kessler, who last surfaced in December with an attack on Social Security in the Wall Street Journal that we noted was brimming with misrepresentations and untruths.

Their new proposal to "capitalize workers" appeared over the weekend in the New York Times. (They do get around.) Their theme is that raising the minimum wage is all well and good, "but if the goal is to materially raise living standards for every American worker, we should also be calling for a minimum pension." Properly structured, they say "this would not only create real wealth for the middle and working classes, it would use the power of financial markets to reduce wealth disparity."

A couple of points right off. We already have a minimum pension program. It's called Social Security, and since Cowan and Kessler have been running around claiming (incorrectly) that the program is in an "undebatable solvency crisis," we should be very wary about whatever claims they make for how their idea is better.

Read more: http://www.latimes.com/business/hiltzik/la-fi-mh-another-rotten-20140408,0,5830517.column

[arcane1]

1. Yes, because nothing says "reduce wealth disparity" quite like "the power of financial markets"

Where do I sign up???

[Curmudgeoness]

2. Seems that they are looking for more ways

to separate the workers with their money, while feeding that money into the markets so the 1% can steal it. They did that already with IRA's and 401(k)'s, but I guess that isn't enough. They need more.

FEED ME!!!!!