How Europe is seizing your pension assets

And this is happening all legally. Remember, you chaps, your money is not save from these grasping politicians who will rob the people who scrimp and save to give to the feckless and useless. Bloody thieves. Argentina did the same. And then these buggers want you to increase your pension contribution. Bah!, no wonder pensions are the furthest things from people’s minds.

I quote:

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.

The most striking example is Hungary, where last month the government made the citizens an offer they could not refuse. They could either remit their individual retirement savings to the state, or lose the right to the basic state pension (but still have an obligation to pay contributions for it). In this extortionate way, the government wants to gain control over $14bn of individual retirement savings.

The Bulgarian government has come up with a similar idea. $300m of private early retirement savings was supposed to be transferred to the state pension scheme. The government gave way after trade unions protested and finally only about 20% of the original plans were implemented.

A slightly less drastic situation is developing in Poland. The government wants to transfer of 1/3 of future contributions from individual retirement accounts to the state-run social security system. Since this system does not back its liabilities with stocks or even bonds, the money taken away from the savers will go directly to the state treasury and savers will lose about $2.3bn a year. The Polish government is more generous than the Hungarian one, but only because it wants to seize just 1/3 of the future savings and also allows the citizens to keep the money accumulated so far.

The fourth example is Ireland. In 2001, the National Pension Reserve Fund was brought into existence for the purpose of supporting pensions of the Irish people in the years 2025-2050. The scheme was also supposed to provide for the pensions of some public sector employees (mainly university staff). However, in March 2009, the Irish government earmarked €4bn from this fund for rescuing banks. In November 2010, the remaining savings of €2.5bn was seized to support the bailout of the rest of the country.

The final example is France. In November, the French parliament decided to earmark €33bn from the national reserve pension fund FRR to reduce the short-term pension scheme deficit. In this way, the retirement savings intended for the years 2020-2040 will be used earlier, that is in the years 2011-2024, and the government will spend the saved up resources on other purposes.

It looks like although the governments are able to enforce general participation in pension schemes, they do not seem to be the best guardians of the money accumulated there. 

Gay elephant sparks anger in Poland

I do not know what is more bizarre, the poor elephant or the bunch of moronic Polish politicians. I quote:

Michal Grzes, a conservative councillor in the city of Poznan in western Poland, said the animal preferred male company and would probably not procreate.

He said it meant the city's massive investment in a new home for the animals had been a waste of time.

"We didn't pay 37 million zlotys (£7.6 million) for the largest elephant house in Europe to have a gay elephant live there," said Mr Grzes, who is from the right-wing opposition Law and Justice party.

"We were supposed to have a herd, but as Ninio prefers male friends over females how will he produce offspring?" said.

The head of the Poznan zoo said 10-year-old Ninio may be too young to decide whether he prefers males or females as elephants only reach sexual maturity at 14.

Somebody explain this to me, why do the brains of all conservative politicians dribble out of their backside whenever it comes to sex? And usually its these bloody conservative politicians who are usually caught up in sex scandals. Much more bizarre than a so called gay elephant.

Technorati Tags: animals,politicians,Poland

Offshoring from Poland to Germany!

Now I have heard everything, read this and wonder!, how important it is to have a stable regulatory and tax regime.

A new trend is emerging among Polish companies no longer willing to put up with the rising cost of hiring skilled labour and dealing with the country's complex bureaucracy. They have begun recruiting and opening bases in Germany, a country better known for its well-paid skilled workers.
Mr Wieczorek says the stable regulatory environment in Germany comes as a relief compared with the instability that prevails in Poland.
Land in Germany is cheaper too: the factory in Pasewalk cost one-tenth the price of space in Poznan.
Expanding in Germany has a further advantage. The company can market the products as made in Germany, thereby benefiting from its reputation for high-quality engineering.
And Mr Wieczorek concedes that his German staff are less skilled than his Polish workers. "We have trouble with qualifications in Germany and the more complicated work is still being done in Poznan," he says. "We have to spend a lot of time here bringing our German workers up to Polish standards."
But Mr Mordasewicz says the government of Donald Tusk, Poland's prime minister, must address companies' complaints about impenetrable bureaucracy, frequently changing regulations, a somnolent court system and a lack of infrastructure.

All this to be taken with a grain of piquant salt!!!