David Dayan — Debate Moderators Under the Spell of Deficit-Obsessed Billionaire Pete Peterson

The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, an organization that is virtually unknown outside of Washington, was nonetheless cited in four different questions during this year’s presidential and vice-presidential debates.

Moderators Elaine Quijano and Chris Wallace, seemingly unable to string together an intelligent thought about domestic policy on their own, outsourced their questions to a cabal of self-styled serious grown-ups who believe that advocating for cutting Social Security and Medicare makes them look like paragons of virtue.…

 Sociologists, psychologists and PR people call it cultivating an image — of being VSPs —Very Serious Persons.

HRC is in Peterson's pocket, in addition to that of George Soros, Wall Street, Saudi Arabia and all the rest of Bill and Hillary's patrons and donors.

The Intercept

Debate Moderators Under the Spell of Deficit-Obsessed Billionaire Pete Peterson

David Dayan

Yves Smith — Blackstone’s Tony James Touting What Looks Like Hillary’s Scheme to Gut Social Security

Hillary's mandatory retirement savings accounts are a twofer: a way to replace Social Security over time and enrich private equity and hedgies.

Now that it is clear that HRC say one thing publicly and another behind closed doors.

Readers may recall that Bill Clinton planned to privatize Social Security in the second term of his Presidency. The Monica Lewinsky scandal derailed his plan.

As the Clintons knew, only a Democrat can dismantle Social Security. Hillary looks to be picking up where Bill left off.

One can only imagine what is in this financially for Bill and Hillary Clinton. They have already pulled in 111 million, 80 reported by Bill and 31 by Hillary. There's no quid pro quo though. Hey, they gave speeches.

Naked Capitalism
Blackstone’s Tony James Touting What Looks Like Hillary’s Scheme to Gut Social Security
Yves Smith

Mark Thoma — 'Investment Charges When Mexico Privatized Social Security'

Tim Taylor: "As Hastings explains: "Fund managers charged an average load (a fee taken as a share of account contributions at the time of contribution) of 23 percent and an annual fee on assets under management of 0.63 percent, implying that a 100-peso deposit earning a 5 percent annual real return would only be worth 95.4 pesos after five years." ...

Of course, countries are different and no firm conclusions can be drawn based on comparisons with Mexico. YMMV.

Economist’s View
'Investment Charges When Mexico Privatized Social Security'
Mark Thoma | Professor of Economics, University of Oregon