Private savings schemes have not worked out for the vast majority of us.
The private savings rate last year fell to its lowest level since the Great Depression.
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's 15 countries, meeting in Portugal, agreed to shelve a proposed tax on private savings.
The fact is, U.S. Treasury borrowing has taken some 110% of net U.S. private savings (NPS) these past twelve months.
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But when government becomes too big or absorbs too great a share of private savings, it chokes off productivity and growth.
My speculation is that it might be government spending and debt crowding out private savings, not leaving enough for productive private investment.
And I've got no problem with people investing in their 401(k)s, and we want to encourage people to invest in private savings accounts.
But underpinning the weight of speculative demand, meantime, expect to see a small but growing chunk of private savings moving cash into silver.
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This could be combined with some form of mandatory private savings plan, which has been implemented in many countries worldwide with good results.
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But international imbalances also reflect how much governments borrow and in many deficit countries that has risen, partly offsetting the increase in private savings.
President Obama tried to hide his irritation when Dr. Benjamin Carson touted private savings accounts for health care spending at the recent national prayer breakfast.
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Research by Christiane Nickel and Isabel Vansteenkiste of the European Central Bank found that rising budget deficits in high-debt countries are associated with higher private savings.
Life insurers spy opportunity in the crumbling of India's traditional extended families and the threadbare social safety-net, which can be padded out only with private savings.
In Britain and America, a discussion has begun about the need for radical reform of state pensions (Social Security), and about the role that private savings should play.
This is because so much of the benefit obligations of the program are shifted to financing through private savings and investment rather than public tax and spending redistribution.
Since net stock of private savings is larger than the net stock of public sector liabilities, Koll reckons that the overall effect on the economy would be positive.
With actually better benefits all paid through private savings, investment and insurance, there is no need or even place for Social Security benefit cuts, even if they were politically possible.
The existing system for funding paid long-term supports and services is built on a wobbly three-legged stool: low private savings, an underfunded Medicaid program, and a hobbled private long-term care insurance market.
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That would ultimately shift federal spending equal to 10% of GDP to the private sector, where the private savings, investment and insurance would pay better benefits than Social Security even promises today, let alone what it could pay.
Those of us who subsequently lost a large chunk of our private savings because of the unbridled deregulation of financial markets are grateful that Mr Bush was stopped from investing our pensions in collateralised-debt obligations and subprime mortgages.
In place of pensions, many younger workers now have 401k plans or the like, which means much of their retirement is already in the hands of the financial markets (as are any private savings they've managed on their own).
America still clings to some bad economic habits, including a failure to save the private savings rate, at a dismal 5%, is one of the lowest among the rich countries and a tendency to think short-term rather than provide for the future.
The most fundamental is that within a few years existing and new issue government debt may absorb all private savings (corporate and household) in Japan, making foreign borrowing inevitable and creating a terrifying scenario of higher yields demanded by foreigners raising MOF interest costs while inflicting portfolio losses on JGB holders, and putting fiscal balance further (infinitely?) beyond reach, with (by then) predictably horrendous consequences.
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From its beginning, Americans have supplemented Social Security with private pensions and savings.
Private, individual savings plans promise an opportunity (contributions today with tax breaks and company matches) while not guaranteeing the result.
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There are two sorts of private pension: the savings plan and the salary-linked pension.
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America has experienced an almost identical deterioration in its private-sector net savings in recent years.
The government is thought to want to encourage cheaper private pensions and higher savings through tax incentives.
In our analysis of the impact of Japan's demography, we have shown that the current level of private-sector gross savings is indeed higher than we would expect in equilibrium.
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