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   XPost: talk.politics.guns   
   From: obama-biden-disasters@msnbc.com   
      
   In article <4b4fbbed-0e81-4738-a6c2-   
   4da254f4e3d6n@googlegroups.com>   
   socialists  wrote:   
   >   
   > ...Biden is done, stick a fork in him.   
      
   Shades of Obama's economic incompetence.  Flash forward to Joe   
   Biden in 2022.  The stench of Obama is everywhere.   
      
   The U.S. stock market rout that has put U.S. equities in a bear   
   market isn't just reducing the net worth of billionaires like   
   Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos. It's also taking a toll on Americans'   
   retirement savings, wiping out trillions of dollars in value.   
      
   The selloff has erased nearly $3 trillion from U.S. retirement   
   accounts, according to Alicia Munnell, director of the Center   
   for Retirement Research at Boston College. By her calculations,   
   401(k) plan participants have lost about $1.4 trillion from   
   their accounts since the end of 2021. People with IRAs — most of   
   which are 401(k) rollovers — have lost $2 trillion this year.   
      
   This year's stock slump is the most severe market downturn since   
   March of 2020, when COVID-19 erupted in the U.S. Historically,   
   401(k) investments take about two years after a market decline   
   of this size to regain their previous value.   
      
   "Anybody who has to retire when the market is down is in a bad   
   position," Munnell said.   
      
   "Younger people, you can kind of wait it out — these things have   
   come back time and time again," she added. "But people who use   
   their retirement money to support themselves really suffer in   
   this kind of event."   
      
   Bubble losing air   
   Retirement accounts are the main channel through which most   
   Americans are exposed to the ups and downs of the stock market.   
   Nearly three-quarters of all 401(k) money is held in stocks,   
   according to a Vanguard report from 2021. This year it's been   
   mostly down: The S&P 500 has sunk 22%, the Dow Jones Industrial   
   Average has lost nearly 13% and the Nasdaq Composite has fallen   
   more than 30%.   
      
   To be sure, many Wall Street professionals viewed last year's   
   run-up in stocks as a bubble fueled by speculators looking for a   
   place to park new money. But that doesn't make the loss any   
   easier to swallow for most workers, who lack the time, skill or   
   interest to try to time the markets.   
      
   "One could argue that these recent losses are simply wiping out   
   the extraordinary gains that occurred from mid-2020 to the end   
   of 2021, so that people are not actually worse off than before   
   the pandemic," Munnell wrote in a blog post, shared first with   
   CBS MoneyWatch. But human nature being what it is, "the prior   
   gains were permanent, so the recent losses are no less painful.   
      
   More risk, less reward   
   For many low-income people, the growing popularity of so-called   
   target-date funds has also made retirement savings more risky,   
   Munnell noted. Left to their own devices, richer investors tend   
   to choose riskier assets, like stocks. However, due in part to   
   automated retirement tools, the lowest-paid participants today   
   are slightly more likely to have money in stocks, according to   
   Vanguard data she analyzed.   
      
   Among workers with 401(k)s, those with annual incomes under   
   $30,000 a year had 81% of their retirement fund in stocks, while   
   for those making over $150,000, the figure was 76%.   
      
   Target-date funds are a popular set-it-and-forget-it option for   
   choosing a retirement plan, with more than half of all 401(k)   
   participants holding a target-date fund, according to   
   Morningstar Direct, an investment research firm.   
      
   But data shared by Morningstar show that the most popular target-   
   date funds — mutual funds that hold a range of investments and   
   that automatically adjust according to a "target" retirement   
   date — have lost between 10% and 22% of their assets under   
   management this year. (Those losses are due to a fall in stock   
   values as well as participants moving money out of their   
   accounts, Morningstar noted.)   
      
   Paltry 401(k) savings   
   With the median 401(k) account having a balance of just $17,700   
   before the pandemic, this year's market decline would lop off   
   more than $3,500 in value. A would-be retiree with a balance of   
   over $81,000 — which would put them in the top 25% of savers —   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
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