US Presidential Election: NBC Revealed "Result" One Day Early

In the meantime in the US, one day before the presidential election, NBC inadvertently released the screen of the "result" of the presidential election. As Politico's Dylan Byers notes, a test page for Tuesday's election results has gone public on NBC.

NBC's "result":

• Popular vote Romney 55%, Obama 43%, with 16% in;

• Electoral College Obama 280, Romney 257, with 270 needed to win

From Politico (11/5/2012):

Don't worry, Obama fans. The screen has since been corrected, and CNBC's Jim Cramer (of Mad Money fame) is predicting 98-440 (electoral college) landslide victory for Obama.

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Massachusetts Senate Race, A Landslide?

If you look at the numbers at Intrade, it sure feels like it...

However the administration and the Democratic leaders want to spin it or downplay it, this special election is being perceived by many to be the referendum on the 1-year old administration's policies, particularly the health care so-called "reform".

Should Mr. Brown win, you can expect the vote counting process to be so slow, and certification process protracted, while the Senate frantically try to pass the health care bill, whether by 60 (interim Senator from Massachusetts is Democrat, of course) or by mere 51 using reconciliation.

What should worry for people predicting or hoping for Brown's win may be Jim Cramer, whom many retail traders and investors consider to be a counter-indicator. Mr. Cramer is hoping for a massive stock market rally resulting from Mr. Brown's win. (But then, the proverbial broken clock is right twice a day.)

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Here Comes Mandatory IRA

When Jim Cramer tries to sell you something, the game's usually over. Two days ago he tried to lay claim to the brilliant idea of IRA stuffed with special Treasury bonds "that will be safe" (in reality, far from it, but no matter). It is coming, whether you like it or not.

Breaking Down the Obama IRA (7/7/09 Smart Money)

"Tucked into President Obama’s financial regulatory reform legislation still being debated in Congress is a proposal to get more workers saving for retirement. The plan calls for employers to set up mandatory automatic-enrollment IRAs, retirement accounts that allow for tax-deductible contributions.

"If the measure passes, companies that don't currently offer a tax-deferred retirement-savings plan would funnel employee contributions into IRA accounts through direct payroll deposits. It would also represent the biggest increase in new retirement savers since the creation of the 401(k) in 1980.

"Companies that don't currently offer a retirement plan, employ 10 or more workers, and have been in business for at least two years would be required to enroll their employees in an IRA."

"John [David John, one of the plan's designers, the principal of The Retirement Security Project and a senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation] says he hopes to have a draft of the legislation introduced to Congress within a month."

The legislation is being crafted for the White House by the Heritage Foundation (conservative think tank) and Brookings Institution (liberal think-tank, that's where Mr. J. Mark Iwry comes from, Obama official in charge at Treasury - see my older post).

I thought it's the Congress' job to craft a legislation.

Do you remember the talk, back in November last year, about confiscating 401K and IRA to create Guaranteed Retirement Accounts (GRAs) managed by the Social Security Administration?

If the mandatory IRAs to be created will be stuffed with the Treasury bonds, the government will effectively own the accounts.

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Jim Cramer Pushing For IRA Treasury Bond

as if it was his own idea. It is beyond amazing. All I can do is LOLRL (laughing out loud, really loud). Mr. Jim Cramer of CNBC Mad Money is simply pushing the administration's idea of forced IRA accounts stuffed with the specially-designed Treasury bond.

I was made aware of Mr. Cramer's latest antic via Market Ticker. I followed the link provided there, and voila, almost word for word with the administration's plan that's been floating around. This blog posted the detail of this attempt to grab more money by the administration, here.

Cramer: 30-Year, 5% Treasurys? (7/6/09 Mad Money)

"Cramer has a solution for average Americans looking to recoup investments losses after a tough two years in the market: Rebuild America Retirement Bonds."

"...he [Cramer] called for the Treasury Department to issue 30-year, 5% bonds as a way to help families who are desperate to recover their savings."

And here's the administration officials:

"Officials in the Obama administration are moving quickly to develop the investment infrastructure behind the president’s proposal for mandatory automatic enrollment in individual retirement accounts, which could be supported by the creation of Treasury-issued retirement bonds."

"J. Mark Iwry, deputy assistant secretary for retirement and health policy at the Department of the Treasury, said that administration officials are exploring some “conservative” options for investing the assets of 78 million Americans that he estimates could be automatically enrolled in this “universal” workplace retirement system."

Back to Cramer:

"CD rates are just too low right now, and stocks have been too volatile to trust. As a result, typically cautious investors have few places to put their money."

Back to the administration officials [follow this link on my post]:

"And if their auto-IRA assets are invested in a vehicle that could decline in value or at least fluctuate frequently, these workers may be discouraged from continuing to save, and could choose to opt out of the plan.

"Using R bonds as the cornerstone for these accounts, however, could eliminate this volatility issue."

One original idea, Mr. Cramer.

Back to the administration official:

"The administration, which included an auto-IRA provision in its 2010 budget, has gained some bipartisan support for the proposal, Mr. Iwry added."

Back to Cramer:

"So call your congressman, call your senator and let the White House know you want these bonds to be issued."

78 million Americans who could "benefit" from such scheme, according to the article in my post. Multiply that by $100,000 each in the account, and you will get $7.8 TRILLION. Now the administration can spend, spend, spend on everything they ever dream of.

I urge you to contact your Congressman and your Senator to block this fraud.

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