Pension Ponzi

Pension Ponzi

Author: Bill Tufts

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2011-01-25

Total Pages: 231

ISBN-13: 1118098730

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The vast majority of Canadians are blissfully unaware that every man, woman and child in Canada now owes a $35,000 share of government debt and must pay this back, with interest! Make no mistake, this debt will change our country and affect every single Canadian in the decades to come. You may think you have planned for your retirement and are safe, but the government must find a way to recover this borrowed money, and they can only do that by raising your taxes and reducing your hard-earned benefits. How did this debt come about, and why can't we simply pay it off? Pension Ponzi lays the blame squarely at the feet of the politicians who refused to stand up to Canada's public sector unions. The fact is Canada's public sector, which accounts for 20% of the workforce, has been grossly overpaid relative to their counterparts in the private sector with cushy pensions paid for with your taxes and new debt. There is no denying that the country does not have the financial resources to ensure that the next generation of Canadians will have the same standard of living as the ones before it-or to support our growing seniors population. Meeting our public sector pension obligations will break the current social safety net that is a pillar of the Canadian way. Can you escape this bleak future? Can you afford to live longer? Nationally-recognized pension expert Bill Tufts and award-winning journalist Lee Fairbanks explore how this catastrophe came about and then suggest ways that government can fix what's broken, and how you as an individual can protect yourself from the financial calamity that is about to engulf Canada.


Need and Greed

Need and Greed

Author: Stewart L. Weisman

Publisher: Syracuse University Press

Published: 1999-12-01

Total Pages: 408

ISBN-13: 9780815606109

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More than just a tale of manipulated financial statements, counterfeit securities, sham transactions, and cyber fraud, this story is intertwined with personalities from among the rich and famous who were involved, in some fashion, such as Governor George Pataki, actress Debbie Reynolds, attorney F. Lee Bailey, and the former chairman of the SEC. In the largest pyramid scheme in American history, the Bennett Companies which even looted their own employee's pension fund, fleeced more than 12,000 investors, 10,000 trade creditors, and 245 banks and financial institutions, of more than $1 billion. A Ponzi scheme-named for Charles Ponzi, who enticed investors with promises of high returns to purchase worthless coupons in the 1920s- was taken to new heights in the 1990s by the Bennett Companies. Extensively documented, Need and Greed follows the human drama as a small-time scam grows exponentially into nationwide holdings of hotels, floating and fixed casinos, office buildings, shopping malls, and other investments. It also allows the reader a rare view into the inner workings of big-time crime, its prosecution, and subsequent civil litigation. Throughout the book, Weisman includes vignettes about hapless investors, portraits of the Bennetts and other key players, the corporate culture at Bennett Funding, and the trappings of the lush Bennett lifestyle.


Understanding Pensions

Understanding Pensions

Author: Martin Sullivan

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2004-08-28

Total Pages: 188

ISBN-13: 1134480237

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With birth rates falling at the same time that average age is rising in the developed world, the pensions time bomb is ticking louder than ever. Understanding how pensions work, their history, and their future is absolutely essential. This book thoroughly explains to readers the unique concepts and terminology which underpin pensions. Focusing firstly on the rationale for pensions and their evolution, before moving on to an explanation of the latest controversies regarding pensions. The glossary of pensions terminology in the final section of the book virtually ensures its place on many academic bookshelves. This timely volume is an extremely useful contribution to this important issue. Of use to policy-makers as much as to students and academics of finance and public policy, Understanding Pensions should prove to be a popular addition to the literature.


How They Got Away with it

How They Got Away with it

Author: Susan Will

Publisher: Columbia University Press

Published: 2013

Total Pages: 386

ISBN-13: 023115691X

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A criminological investigation into the social, cultural, political & economic conditions that led to the 2008 financial collapse.


The Politics of Ponzi Schemes

The Politics of Ponzi Schemes

Author: Marie Springer

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2020-12-30

Total Pages: 324

ISBN-13: 0429869797

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In the space of three years, from 2009 to 2012 Bernie Madoff, Tom Petters and R. Allen Stanford were all convicted for running multi-billion dollar Ponzi schemes. These three schemes alone have had the largest financial take in U.S. history. But what role does the economy and legislation play in the occurrences of Ponzi schemes? What is the nature of Ponzi schemes and what are their tools and mechanisms? What can we know about Ponzi perpetrators? Unraveling the answers to these questions (and many more), Marie Springer provides the first representative portrait of Ponzi schemes, their perpetrators, and their victims. Adopting a multidisciplinary approach, she begins by presenting an overview of different types of Ponzi schemes. She later explores perpetrators and victims of Ponzi schemes followed by a close examination of economic trends, regulatory changes, and the financial relationship with Ponzi schemes. Other key features include: • A non-technical overview of both offender based and offense-based approaches of studying this form of fraud. • Examples of Ponzi schemes and Ponzi schemers. • A wealth of descriptive statistics on known federal cases from the 1960s until the present to quantify this specific form of fraud. Broadening our understanding of Ponzi schemes as a form of white-collar crime, The Politics of Ponzi Schemes provides an excellent foundation for students and practitioners of public administration, banking, as well as investors, finance and accounting, law enforcement officers, legislators and regulators.


Fleeced!

Fleeced!

Author: David Craig

Publisher: Constable

Published: 2013-07-25

Total Pages: 224

ISBN-13: 1472112245

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Over the past decade some £3 trillion - equivalent to £50,000 for every person in Britain - has been taken from us by the ruling elites. Half was wasted in a splurge of poorly-managed public spending in the 'boom', while the other half evaporated in the 'bust' - siphoned off by city bonuses, vaporised by a collapse in pension savings and extorted to bail out the banking sector. In their explosive new book, David Craig and Matthew Elliott trace where the money has gone and who has become richer as a result. They name and shame the 'guilty': the incompetent bureaucrats that fail to deliver the services the taxpayer deserves; the multitude of ineffective regulators and watchdogs; the politicians that have betrayed our democracy and enriched themselves; and the self-serving and arrogant city bankers. Moreover, they calculate the enormous debt that awaits the British taxpayer as a result of our rulers' avarice and economic mismanagement. Fleeced! charts the greatest impoverishment and tax swindle of the public in British history.


Unsustainable

Unsustainable

Author: James MacDougald

Publisher: The Free Enterprise Nation

Published: 2010-06-14

Total Pages: 335

ISBN-13: 0615376444

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UNSUSTAINABLE is packed with information that is vital to every taxpaying American. It reveals shocking information that has long been hidden from the public. It exposes how governments at every level hide the pay and exorbitant pensions they provide to themselves and use accounting trickery to keep taxpayers from knowing of the enormous costs and long-term liabilities. MacDougald shows how the federal government keeps $106 trillion of debt hidden from taxpayers, and how state and local governments hide another $3 trillion. He exposes exactly how governments often trick taxpayers into agreeing to pay more and more taxes to "save schools" or "provide police protection" when the money really goes to more pay and bigger pensions. UNSUSTAINABLE details how public sector unions have become a "money pump," taking taxpayer dollars paid to public sector workers, then given as union dues, and then used for political contributions to politicians who will support the extraction of even more taxpayer dollars. The provocative and controversial book also documents and exposes the huge financial catastrophe that is about to befall Social Security, "baby boomers" and our younger workers and how it will threaten our economy for decades. UNSUSTAINABLE addresses the "jobs squeeze," detailing how the private sector lost 1.5 million jobs in the last decade even as government grew by 2 million. And it reveals how Congress passes laws that they know violate our Constitutional rights and gets away with it. It is a book that all Americans, no matter what their politics, must read.


Return to Growth Volume One

Return to Growth Volume One

Author: Jon Moynihan

Publisher: Biteback Publishing

Published: 2024-09-10

Total Pages: 339

ISBN-13: 1785909428

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The UK has, in recent years, been suffering from what is nothing short of an economic crisis. Growth has now completely stalled in those western democracies, the UK included, where high government spending and high taxes have steadily burgeoned, decade after decade. Free-market economies now threaten to leave us behind in terms of wealth, opportunity and standards of living. At the end of Rishi Sunak's 2024 government, expenditure was at 45 per cent of GDP and taxes were 36 per cent and rising – yet still nowhere near sufficient to cover public expenditure. The government's net annual borrowing is now a completely unsustainable 4.4 per cent of GDP, with our overall national debt growing rapidly and alarmingly. In this arresting and powerful manifesto for economic change, Jon Moynihan analyses the UK's decades-long stagnant economy and looks at what can be done to resuscitate it. Combining rigorous research with unparalleled business experience, he explores the key dynamics affecting economic growth, ranging from government borrowing, expenditure, tax and regulation to the way national resources are deployed on non-productive and futile, growth-stifling endeavours. Ultimately, Moynihan shows that unless we act now to reverse the decline, by radically restructuring our economy to stimulate economic growth, the UK risks stagnation, financial collapse and a long-term disintegration in our standard of living. Ignore his warning at your peril.


Pensions Under Attack

Pensions Under Attack

Author: Monica Townson

Publisher: James Lorimer & Company

Published: 2001-02-07

Total Pages: 294

ISBN-13: 9781550286946

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Canada's aging population has raised cries of alarm from some quarters. Critics warn of a demographic time bomb waiting to explode and an age war over pensions as the baby boom generation starts to retire in the next decade. They say the answer is to get rid of public pension programs like the Canada Pension Plan and force people to contribute to their own personal savings plans instead. Will this spell disaster for the elderly, or is it a bold new idea for coping with rising costs? Monica Townson, a prominent independent economist, discusses the forces behind the push to privatize public pensions and looks at the likely impact of privatization on the financial security of futre seniors. She describes how Chile, under the Pinochet dictatorship, replaced its public pension plan with a forced savings scheme and became the darling of right-wing governments around the world, and how Britain, under Margaret Thatcher, introduced opting out of public pensions and triggered a major scandal involving some of the big names in the insurance industry. As the debate about pivatization heats up the new millennium, Pensions Under Attack provides the information needed to question the hidded agenda behind the current push to privatize public pensions. It will be a timely contribution to a discussion whose outcome affects the personal financial security of every Canadian.