Negative Interest Rates NIRP - Punishment for Having Savings

 ~ Rant ~ 

All your life you were told to save for a rainy day and to save for retirement, to save up the money to put a down payment on a home.

With negative interest rates, you are punished for saving money, you are punished for having a savings account, you are punished for saving for a down payment on a home, you are punished for saving for retirement; you are punished for trying to save for anything.

How many elderly are wards of the state because they don't have any money to pay for an elderly care facility?

How many homes are not being bought because would-be buyers don't have enough money for a down payment?

How many people can't handle a minor medical emergency, or unexpected vehicle repair because they don't have enough (or any) savings?

This is how things are now. Imagine how much worse it will be when negative interest rates are made policy.

Note that I said "when" not "if" negative interest rates are made policy. Given how foolishly the government, Federal Reserve, big banks and big corporations mishandled things these past years, I have no doubt that they will implement negative interest rates and the little folks like you and me are going to be punished the hardest.

And no, it won't only affect the banks. Banks and businesses will pass on the costs of negative interest rates onto consumers. Those inactivity fees on your checking account are going to go even higher. You will be charged fees that will eat away even more of your money in your savings account,... if you are fortunate enough to have any money in a savings account.

Oh,... but you have investments.

Right. Where do those investments keep the money you gave them?

And when you try to pull money out of your investments, just how much higher will the transaction, handling, and other professional fees be?

The whole idea behind investing is getting more out than you put in, right? So if these investments make enough money to pay you back just the amount you put in, they are being hit by the negative interest rates on that money. You will be getting back less than you put in.

Oh,... but you have your money stashed under your mattress.

Right. That's why the government and big banks want to make cash illegal and force everyone into a cashless system. The government loves the idea because they can instantly tax you more on more things. The big banks love it because it forces you to spend more and go deeper in continuous debt to them. Your debt to the banks are the banks' wealth and it makes you their slave. The government and banks both love the idea of a cashless society because it will give them even greater abilities to monitor and control you.

Negative interest rates are an act of extreme desperation and foolishness and we, the little people, will suffer the most because of NIRP.



Some more reading material about negative interest rates:

http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/opinion/columns/all-you-wanted-to-know-about-negative-interest-rates/article8210100.ece

http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2016/02/13/negative-interest-rates-are-bad-for-b-of-a.aspx

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/terry-savage/negative-interest-rates-f_b_9196592.html

http://www.businessinsider.com/why-negative-interest-rates-dont-work-2015-1?r=UK&IR=T



Comments
Please, keep your comments clean, civil and relevant. Cussing with foul language just for the sake of using foul language only proves the person to be an obnoxious, dull-witted fool.

Cashless Cataclysm

 ~ Musing the Balance of Things ~

"Give me control of a nation's money and I care not who makes it's laws." ~ Mayer Amschel Bauer Rothschild

In a cashless society, people would be financially held captive as slaves. No freedom to "vote with their dollars" because they no longer have control of their own money, the earnings of their diligence and labor.

Even if it is a cryptocurrency, the management of the digital currency is still conducted online.

The Internet was first and foremost created as a communications tool for the military.

Not enough of society is tech savvy to find ways around government check-points and blocks of the financial activities on the Internet.

As a result, a black markets of barter or commodity based transactions will grow.

Since such activity can not be directly monitored and controlled by the government or the controlling entities, those who participate in such tangible transactions will be considered criminals and economic terrorists.

This in turn will result in more incarcerations. Private prisons are one of the largest and most lucrative industries in America.

Once imprisoned, many rights and civil liberties are stripped away from the prisoner.

Prisoners are legal slaves.

Slavery is very good for maximizing profit margins.

A cashless society will promote greater tyranny and slavery until the people have reached their breaking point.

Civil war is the next step.

Well, that's my two digital cents.



Comments
Please, keep your comments clean, civil and relevant. Cussing with foul language just for the sake of using foul language only proves the person to be an obnoxious, dull-witted fool.

Why Unfortunately for Americans Hillary will be President

 ~ Rant ~ 

Here is why I think Hillary Clinton, unfortunately for America, will be elected President in 2017.

It's politically correct - she has a vagina.

Big banks and big corporations have paid for her pre-determined presidency.

And mostly because she has not yet been (and sadly, probably never will be) thrown in prison.

There has been several reports about Hillary Clinton's unsecured, home server, based on the cloud in Colorado, where classified, top secret, and beyond top secret (SAP - Special Access Programs) documents and emails passed through and resided. Violation of oath of office, violation of laws, and violation of national security; things that if any of us little people committed even a tiny fraction of, we would have been quickly tossed in jail for the rest of our lives or executed on the spot.

Given the Clintons' history, it would not be surprising that she sold to both foreign and domestic entities, state secrets and favors for "donations".

Geeks all over the world have setup automated systems to search and attempt to hack any IP address the programs find. China and Russia most definitely have hacked the server and probably more than a dozen other countries.

Here is an article from the New York Post, by Paul Sperry, "'This was all planned': Former IG says Hillary, State Dept. are lying":
http://nypost.com/2016/01/31/this-was-all-planned-former-ig-says-hillary-state-dept-are-lying/

In the article, former Inspector General, Howard J. Krongard, points out several  things that should have sent up red flags years ago. He also explains that the FBI's criminal referral to the Justice Department will be watered-down and quietly brushed under the carpet because it would have to go through four, high ranking, Democrat-loyal women. The epitome of political correctness and political graft... the cesspool of American politics and law.

A Hillary Clinton presidency would be more proof that the United States of America is a banana republic where the laws only apply to the little people.



Comments
Please, keep your comments clean, civil and relevant. Cussing with foul language just for the sake of using foul language only proves the person to be an obnoxious, dull-witted fool.

TurboTax - Rubbing It In That You are Poor

 ~ Rant ~ 

I've used Intuit's, free, online version of TurboTax for years to file my income taxes. Eight years of being mostly unemployed or underemployed have left me solidly (and sadly) qualified for the free, tax preparation services.

By sticking with Intuit's, free, online version of TurboTax, my previous year's income tax information was readily available to automatically fill in a lot of parts in the many multiple forms.

As with previous years, TurboTax showed me my contact information, my previous employer's information, and a summary of last year's return. When I clicked on the "Continue" button, I was taken to a page listing three pricing categories. "Free", "Plus" for an extra $30, and "Upgrade" for more money that I did not want to spend (I'm paraphrasing but that's the gist of the titles).

What was different this year, from all the previous years that I had used TurboTax online to file my income taxes, was that after selecting the free option, TurboTax showed my previous year's information being slowly deleted, one-by-one, just to rub my nose into the fact that I am poor enough to have to chose the "free" option. For people in my situation, $30 is still a considerable sum.

I doubt my information was actually deleted. The amount of demographic and economic information that Intuit collects from these services is too valuable to delete. But Intuit purposefully put an animated depiction of all your data being slowly deleted just to rub salt into your impoverished wounds. Very uncouth Intuit. There are ethically better ways to market your wares than that.

After that bit of unpleasantness, I was taken to another web page where I went through the process of manually entering all the information that Intuit wanted an extra $30 just to have an algorithm automatically regurgitate my information from previous years. If another human being was doing the data entry for me, I could see reason for a small fee but when all this stuff is handled (and supposedly deleted) by an automated system, that's just gouging, in my opinion.

Several times throughout the process, TurboTax would bring up the three tier, optional fees screen, trying to milk as much money out of me as possible. I realize Intuit is trying to up-sell me on more products and services but the reason I am using the free service is because I am too poor to buy all the for-an-extra-fee stuff!

Filing income taxes is intimidating, worrisome, and frustrating enough as is without Intuit trying to bleed even more out of you.





Comments
Please, keep your comments clean, civil and relevant. Cussing with foul language just for the sake of using foul language only proves the person to be an obnoxious, dull-witted fool.