Jackson Jambalaya

Ronni Mott's analysis in the same string regarding 401k plans is, er, to put it plainly, f'ing ignorant.

Here you go Ronni. Something to help with your ignorance problem:

In the United States of America, a 401(k) plan allows a worker to save for retirement while deferring income taxes on the saved money and earnings until withdrawal.

Somehow I don't think a new business reporter is going to help the people stuck on stupid over at the JFP.

Fat Harry, 401K plans have never been all they've been cracked up to be. First, they aren't "savings" plans at all; they're investment plans, which, as people are seeing pretty clearly now, rise and fall at the whim of the stock market. And, they are not "tax exempt," they're "tax deferred" plans. After retirement, the income from the plans are taxed at the point you start drawing funds from it as regular income.

There are several problems with 401Ks that should be addressed, although the story MAllen linked to is pretty sketchy on details.

First, unless you have some major catastrophic need, you can't touch it before 59 1/2, without paying major penalties. Who does that benefit other than the plan managers? Second, see above: as investment plans, 401Ks often do not provide any retirement benefits if you're unlucky enough to have picked a bad mix of investments.

People today are completely losing their 401K retirement nest eggs, although you can bet that the fund managers have already gotten their cuts. I saw it happen first hand at WorldCom after the stock tanked. People who had lots of WorldCom stock in their 401K portfolio lost it all, overnight.

The Obama tax "rollbacks" are only "increases" to pre-Bush levels for the top 1 percent of Americans. Call 'em what you want. I'm not even close to that $250,000 annual income. There are plenty of people in that bracket who are ready and willing to pay their fair share.


posted by Ronni M on 10/16/08 at 06:11 PM

anonymous @ 7:57

A new business reporter won't fix that. That is a fundamental disconnect. There is an undercurrent of hostility out there on the left which posits that the rich are using 401(k), IRA and other savings plans to get richer. Richer, as always, at the expense of others though that couldn't be farther from the truth with those personal retirement savings plans.

They are quickly losing credibility over at JFP to those who pay attention. Just yesterday Ladd jumped on the Obama/Daily Kos smear points against Joe the Plumber. She was quick to post a headline saying he wasn't even registered to vote. This was quickly shown to be a lie and a smear by the left wing media. But, does she post a correction and an apology as she so demands from the Clarion Ledger and others all the time in the name of ethical journalism? Oh hell no! She changes the headline, to read that he is a registered republican, and deletes the first few posts in the blog, including the one which points out she is wrong. She is nothing but an echo chamber for the leftist MSM who attack a man who asked Obama a question while he campaigned in his neighborhood once Obama exposed his agenda in a few words; "Spread the Wealth." She can’t argue the merit of the issue, she can only attack. And, to even suggest that McCain should have vetted this guy or that this guy is a shill only shows how unhinged she's become as this race moves forward.

Stick.To.Jackson.News.The.Clarion Ledger.Is.Kicking.JFP's.Ass.On.Melton.Now.

Her fixation on Palin is disturbing. I mean REALLY disturbing. Either she is desperate for attention and is trying to get picked up by the google search engine gods or she is really unhinged by Palin. A Jackblog post about her daughter told you all you needed to know.

Speaking of Irony, Kingfish, your fixation on Ladd is disturbing. I mean REALLY disturbing.

Tell her to quit lying, engaging in smears, and getting her facts straight and the posts her criticizing her will stop.

Your whining doesn't stand up to analysis anyway. In case you haven't noticed, the Clarion Ledger catches heat from me on a regular basis and I even throw some shots at WAPT recently.

in fact, I just looked at this month's posts and guess what? The criticism between the JFP and Clarion Ledger was split evenly. Of course, the CL doesn't do things like call Palin white trash, devote 80% of their posts to Palin, accuse JFP cartoonists of Plagiarism, and bash the JFP for not paying its taxes while the JFP blares its financial problems all over its website.

Yet I'm the problem. Yeah.

If we could just get the C-L fixated w/ K'fish, then the Circle would be Unbroken. . .by and by, Lord.

You are no longer in the Circle of Trust.