Retirement Confidence at All Time Low Worrying about your retirement? You probably are not the only one. Americans’ confidence in their ability to save for retirement has dropped to the lowest level in seven years (since 9/11) according to the Employee Benefit Research Institute’s annual retirement confidence survey. This year’s results also revealed the biggest one year drop in the 18 year history of the survey. According to this year’s results, just 18% of workers said they feel “very confident” they will have enough money to enjoy a comfortable retirement. Retiree confidence in having a financially secure retirement also decreased from 41% to 29%. Decreases in confidence occurred across all age groups and income levels. Increasing healthcare costs, the ability to find health insurance in retirement and the fear of outliving retirement savings were among the top worries. Other worries respondents cited included the economy, job market and the decline in home values. Obama Changes the Rules of the Game No matter if you are for or against Barack Obama, his merger with Silicon Valley has made him the hottest start up. Before Obama, in order to get the Democratic nomination you needed Labor’s unpaid foot soldiers and the money of reliable large donors. Because Hillary Clinton obtained both (and built the best campaign ever on the old model), before this year’s primary, many candidates could not compete. Thanks to a handful of people from Silicon Valley, Obama has not only secured the nomination of his party but has changed the rules of the game (more precisely his Silicon Valley people have) by raising incredible amounts of money over the Internet by creating a “My Space” and “Facebook” type of model. Atlantic Monthly June, 2008 p.53 | ||||||||||||
I salute the following: | ||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||
Everybody talks about Iraq and its quest for political harmony, from its disharmony,, as if it is a country unique in its attempt to emerge. An assumption of the media and public is that the United States went magically from the Battle of Yorktown (1781) to the peace treaty signed in 1783. |