Great op-ed from Dr. Arnold Kling at the Library of Economics and Liberty: Managing Retirement Accounts. (Thanks to RothCPA.com for the link.) Excerpt:
The only difference between amateur management and professional management is that the professionals get bailed out. Corporations will have to plow more earnings into pension funds–or else default on their obligations, in which case taxpayers will do the bailout through the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation. And state and local pension plans, which also lost money, are going to be bailed out by taxpayers.I fully expect to pay more in taxes to bail out other people’ retirement losses than I lost myself in the market.
If anybody else is afraid to manage their own retirement money and wants the government to do it for them, they are welcome to do so. I would prefer to suffer for my own mistakes.