Are Our 401k's Going to Be Nationalized?

Nothing like reading about next session's Congress to create a reverse Chris Matthews effect (a chill running down your leg). Thursday morning's Wall Street Journal reviewed the likely Congressional leaders during Pres. Elect Obama's first two years. The following passage was particularly haunting:

Some Democrats are starting to target the tax subsidies for 401(k)s and other private retirement options. [George] Miller, who heads the House Education and Labor Committee, calls them "a big failure" and recently held a hearing to ponder alternatives, including nationalizing pensions and replacing them with special bonds administered by Social Security.

"Nationalizing" is a frightfully antiseptic way of saying "the government seizing and promising to give you something else later on".

 (more...)