A Personal Note from the Author

"What is certain is that out-of-control spending will continue, and meaningful benefits for those on Social Security will have to be funded from somewhere. My guess for the most likely future source is a wealth tax on the retirement accounts of those who have distrusted the word of the Federal Government to pay benefits, but who have curiously trusted that same government with regard to retirement account security." - Thomas M. Schmidt

Dear Concerned American:

I begin with a quote from a politician who believed in an all-powerful central government and in using that power to achieve his vision for a nation. “He who has his thumb on the purse has the power.” - Otto von Bismarck, a statesman who created the modern Germany and known as the iron chancellor.

But however well-intentioned he might have been, he built the regulatory groundwork and government institutions for a centralized federal state that was later taken over by an evil political leader who created a tyranny seldom seen in the world before, or after. The tyranny started in 1933, 35 years after Bismarck's death, was National Socialism and the leader was Adolf Hitler. All of this came after Germany's military defeat in World War One and a national debt crisis, followed by hyperinflation and currency collapse

The largest source of liquid private wealth remaining in the United States is the $15 trillion in private retirement funds. The ultimate ownership, control and future of these funds has already been compromised and exchanged for the favorable tax treatment of private retirement plans. Congress writes the laws, so they can tax, penalize, hold your funds hostage and, although they'd never use the word "confiscate", use your assets at their discretion.

The retirement trap I'm writing about is only a proposal at the present time and since it may well begin in the latter years of the Obama Administration, assuming the Democrats can somehow maintain their majorities in Congress, I'm calling it the "Obama Retirement Trap". But make no mistake, the government need for current revenue and their frenzied search for liquidity to monetize their debt obligations is an unspoken quest of both political parties. The establishments of both political parties will do whatever it takes to stay in power, including the raiding and pillaging of your retirement funds.

I am not a Johnny-come-lately to the area of retirement planning. Although I've been in the investment business since the early 1970's, and often write about political and freedom oriented issues, my background has always been in retirement planning. I've been following the government move to raid private retirement funds since the early 1980's with my The Threat of the Private Retirement System book written in 1983. I warned again about this in my 1994 book Escape the Pension Trap. The threat receded somewhat with the Bush Administration, but it is now back with a vengeance and the revenue needs of Washington will eventually trump any government promises and guarantees.

I created the first self-directed hard asset IRA account for gold and collectibles back in the late 1970's and I still remember the day when I was sitting in the office of James U. Blanchard III, a champion of liberty and sound money, in New Orleans. His National Committee to Legalize Gold spearheaded a nationwide grassroots campaign that restored the right of Americans to again own gold bullion following Roosevelt's gold confiscation during the 1930's Great Depression.

Congressman Ron Paul gave us a call to inform us that at the last minute, language had been inserted into the 1981 Economic Recovery Act, Section 314(b) ruling "collectibles" as not in the ‘public interest’ of the United States and, therefore, prohibited from future retirement plan investments. This language promoted by Wall Street and the banks destroyed the opportunity to buy retirement investments performing best during those years of high inflation. More importantly, this section created a precedent for the Secretary of the Treasury to label any investment as not in the public interest in the future -- and therefore prohibited from retirement plans.

You will be forced into another Social Security-like scheme with the proposed mandatory Guaranteed Retirement Annuity, with 5% of your salary confiscated into the program. You will also eventually find your existing retirement funds forced into the government program and you will lose your ability to invest and protect your retirement funds outside of the dollar, government bonds, and the US investment markets at some time in the future. The only questions are when and what the final details of this, the greatest potential wealth confiscation in the history of the world, will be.

My goal in writing this report is to make you aware of the threat with enough time to take some of my recommended actions to protect your retirement wealth, and thereby minimizing the Washington threat and their future confiscation efforts. Conventional retirement experts and most Wall Street investment advisors will say that I'm paranoid and crazy to advance such a theory because they want to retain the management, the fees and the commissions from your retirement investments.

The risks and threats of standing up to Washington’s wealth confiscation and aggression are great. But we have to take a stand. One of the greatest men in history I've studied was a relatively unknown, career army colonel coming from a respected family who lived right across the river from the nation's capitol. Just before the start of a war, the head of the nation offered this officer the opportunity to take command of the entire national army if he would only lead an invasion and turn against his state and people. This officer declined the offer and all that went with it. The head of the nation was so outraged that he had the officer’s home and plantation occupied, confiscated and used as a burial ground for the war dead, never to be returned to his family or their descendents.

The president was Abraham Lincoln, the colonel was Robert E. Lee and his home, called Arlington, is now known as Arlington National Cemetery right across the Potomac River from Washington, DC. “Sirs, my name is the heritage of my parents. It is all I have, and it is not for sale. Do your duty in all things. You cannot do more, you should never wish to do less.” ~ Robert E. Lee

I believe the best retirement planning advice I can offer to successful individuals is to do exactly the opposite of what the government and most retirement or investment professionals suggest. Washington always recommends what is in their best interest, as do most bankers and investment firms, the so-called financial experts who just received trillions in bailouts and guarantees with your tax dollars.

Can you appreciate the irony and hypocrisy of financial institutions like Merrill Lynch or the Bank of America, just to mention a few, who have so little respect for the American public that they can still advertise to manage your investments or even handle your day-to-day banking needs when both went technically bankrupt? They pay themselves outlandish bonuses, yet they only survive in business at all because of the billions in bailouts and guarantees paid for by you, the American taxpayers, and forced on you through the lobbyists they used to buy the bailout votes in Congress.

I'm retired from the investment business. But I want to warn the American public about the growing threat to our retirement assets and benefits from a government gone wild, desperate for revenue, and looking for funds to buy their increasingly risky and ultimately worthless treasury obligations. You've been warned, I've done my duty as an American and an expert in the field. The rest is up to you.

For liberty, secure wealth and financial freedom!

Ron Holland