Hungary, Bulgaria, Poland, Ireland, France, Bolivia Seize Private Pensions

Via Instapundit, European nations begin seizing private pensions:

People’s retirement savings are a convenient source of revenue for governments that don’t want to reduce spending or make privatizations. As most pension schemes in Europe are organised by the state, European ministers of finance have a facilitated access to the savings accumulated there, and it is only logical that they try to get a hold of this money for their own ends. In recent weeks I have noted five such attempts: Three situations concern private personal savings; two others refer to national funds.

That’s on top of this month’s seizure of pensions in Bolivia. Argentina did the same thing in 2008.

Rope, tree, politician. Some assembly required.

This is a fine argument for having cash and precious metals

One argument you’ll hear against gold is that the U.S. government might seize it, as Roosevelt did by executive order in 1933. The counter-argument is that if a government is willing to seize one asset class, then none of them are safe.

If a government’s willing to seize gold, they’ll be willing to seize pensions, 401Ks, IRAs, CDs, stock portfolios, passbook savings accounts, you name it. And frankly there’s a lot more money in any of those asset classes than there is in gold double eagles held privately by U.S. citizens.

Since all of those other assets are electronic they’re even easier to seize than a handful of gold coins buried in a Mason jar. The government wouldn’t even have to send goons to your vault to get your IRA. They could do it at the stroke of a key while they harvested their crops in Farmville.

Meanwhile gold is over $1,400 an ounce. You can secrete $10,000 using just 7 U.S. Gold Double Eagles that weigh 7 ounces Troy and fit in a pants pocket. Gold won’t rust or rot and the worst it will do in a fire is melt if the temperature reaches 1947 degrees F.

Previously – Where do you put money if you’re concerned about bank failures?