By the Balls...

401(k)s Hit by Withdrawal Freezes: Wall Street Journal

Out of work? At least you can liquidate your 401(k) to survive for a year or so, right? Yeah, you have to pay a 10% penalty to the government. And you have to pay taxes based on this income plus everything that you may have made up until now this year. But at least you can rest assured that this money that had voluntarily... and sometimes involuntarily (i.e., mandatory deduction) been taken from your paycheck is yours, right?

Guess again.

The American public has lost its balls. Here is a quote from a man in exactly the situation I mentioned from this article who has been informed that he cannot withdraw his cash:

"I hate to be whiny, but it is my money," Mr. Dursky said.

Whiny? Why not furious?

And it gets worse. The money isn't there because it was gambled.

So while the tax payer is being fleeced to the tune of trillions of dollars and generations of debt for no good reason, a hard working person trying to get a mere 12K out of her retirement account is left hanging.

Some investors have lost hope of recovering their money. Judith Sterner, a 69-year-old part-time nurse, had more than $12,000 in the fund when she tried to transfer that balance to a money market last fall. But her transfer was denied, and her stake has since declined to less than $10,000.

"This $12,000 represents a year of my retirement money that I don't have," said Ms. Sterner, of Morton Grove, Ill.

It is amazing that a population can get fleeced wholesale like this but they resort en-mass to wishful thinking, a defunct nationalism, cultural myths, etc. in order not to see the truth that is right around the corner.