Dear City of Greensboro Finance Director Rick Lusk, News and Record's Richard Barron and Rhino Times' John Hammer; CAFR Fun

As Libor Blows Out To Fresh 6 Year Highs, A $28 Trillion Debt Question Emerges

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-08-11/libor-blows-out-fresh-6-year-highs-28-trillion-debt-question-emerges

Better figure it out Tony

http://www.macrotrends.net/1447/ted-spread-historical-chart

What Greensboro's City Council and Staff didn't/don't/won't watch out for, for their own employees' retirement plan

"...Paying too much: You have to care about expenses. They are the most predictable characteristic of explaining future returns of funds, experts say. And expenses are a more reliable signal than past performance.

They don't care about their own employees

Choosing the right mutual fund is different from choosing stocks, because you're effectively choosing a money manager rather than a management team. Controlling costs is key to successful fund investing.

They had the chance to do the right thing, 

and they didn't do it

It can’t be said enough: with funds, costs matter. Annual expenses eat into total return, year after year. With high-cost funds, you pay more and pocket less. Moreover, studies show that low-expense funds are more likely to outperform their costlier counterparts over time..."

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/how-to-buy-mutual-funds-2016-07-24

If you are a City of Greensboro employee,

Nancy Vaughan, Nancy Hofmann, Tony Wilkins, Justin Outling, Jamal Fox, 

Mike Barber, Yvonne Johnson, Sharon Hightower, Marikay Abuzuaiter, 

Connie Hammond, Rick Lusk, Jim Westmoreland 

Mary Vigue and Donnie Turlington are directly responsible for your not making more

in your ICMA-RC 457 retirement plan

They chose Wall Street over those they have a responsibility to represent

"What John Oliver learned [which Greensboro's City Council and City Staff Didn't] while setting up a 401(k) plan for his employees"

"John Oliver, who has famously exposed the questionable practices of various industries on his HBO show “Last Week Tonight” ...recently took a look at the onerous fees that some retirement plans charge.

When presented with the opportunity to do right by City of Greensboro's employees, 

Tony Wilkins, Marikay Abuzuaiter, Nancy Vaughan, Mike Barber, Yvonne Johnson, 

Jamal Fox, Sharon Hightower, Rick Lusk, Mary Vigue, Connie Hammond, Jim Westmoreland 

and Zack Matheny, who was a stockbroker and knew better, 

supported cronies connected to the financial industry

instead of more than 2,800 employees who are still getting skimmed off of by ICMA-RC, 

the administrator for the City's 457 retirement plan.

“As a favor to your future self, it is worth watching this for 20 minutes because you could easily make small mistakes that could seriously cost you down the line,” he says toward the beginning of the June 12 episode.

Those current and former City employees mentioned above are thieves

They stole from those who they are supposed to look out for

He goes on to say that most actively managed funds don’t beat the market, and that anyone can call himself an investment adviser whether he has official credentials or not. And he explains what it means when an adivser is bound by a fiduciary standard: “It’s currently legal for advisers to put their own interests ahead of yours unless they’re a fiduciary.”...

The News and Record refused to look into Greensboro's retirement plan

and North Carolina State's retirement plans

for the benefit of Warren Buffett, who owns the paper and Wells Fargo

of which Berkshire Hathaway owns more than 10%

...he dedicates much of the show to what he learned after asking his production company to set up a 401(k) plan for his employees. Namely, that there are a lot of fees.

Susan Ladd betrayed City of Greensboro employees 

and our community by inaction, while she tries over and over to save some trees

instead of thousands of residents millions over time

“Compound interest works both ways,” he says. The company managing the show’s 401(k), John Hancock, gave him and his staff a presentation. After looking at the plan’s paperwork, “Last Week Tonight” realized there were the following fees: A combined 1.69% fee, plus a $24 per person per year fee, plus a fee for a broker who was acting as an intermediary. The broker received 1% of assets the first year and 0.5% every year after that. Oliver points out that if his 35 employees saved $6,000 a year for 30 years, it would cost them $1 million in fees overall. In addition, the broker said he was not a fiduciary, and when he sent the show a table showing how much the plan could grow, he was off by more than $10 million because of bad arithmetic, according to Oliver.

ICMA-RC is not considered a fiduciary for Greensboro's employees,

letting City Management including Jim Westmoreland, Mary Vigue, members of ICMA,

mislead and overcharge City participants with the active help of ICMA member Jamal Fox

and the rest of City Council.

...A spokeswoman for John Hancock told MarketWatch via email that the show’s 401(k) plan was placed with it after “an open and rigorous competitive review,” and it was competing against other prominent companies for the account. She said John Hancock disagrees with the way its business practices were characterized.

ICMA-RC doesn't act in the best interests of the City of Greensboro's employees,

but the best interests of ICMA-RC with the help of Council and Staff

“We feel that the analysis and presentation of fees and services by the show is flawed and misleading,” she said, adding, “We believe in the value of the services we provide and feel they add to the success of the plan in helping participants for retirement.”

By not making an endorsement for the NC Treasurer Democratic primary,

Greensboro's News and Record, along with most of the other state papers

fucked hundreds of thousands of municipal employees out of more than $500,000,000 per year

and most don't know.

In the end, Oliver offered five tips for people saving for retirement. You can see these starting around the 18-minute mark of the video, where they are much more humorously presented than they are here:

1. Start saving now
2. Invest in low-cost index funds

The City of Greensboro lied in response to a public records request,

has been caught red handed, and our local press won't report it

for the benefit of local City executives and entrenched City Council incumbents

to the detriment of City employees and they are going to get away with it

because it may harm the financial industry's profit margins.

3. Ask if your adviser is a fiduciary
4. Gradually shift investments from stocks to bonds as you get older
5. Keep your fees under 1%

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/what-john-oliver-learned-while-setting-up-a-401k-plan-for-his-employees-2016-06-13
.
.
The News and Record didn't report how Clayton Homes rips off poor people.

Jeff Gauger didn't report how Wells Fargo makes money from North Carolina's retirement plans.

The News and Record didn't report how mimicking the federal government's Thrift Savings Plan
 could save Greensboro's employees more than $500,000 per year, 
to preserve Warren Buffett's profitability at the expense of their readers.

Jeff Gauger and friends steal hundreds of millions from their readers 
via lies of omission so Warren Buffett can make more money.

Joe Killian and Jeff Gauger betrayed North Carolina's employees
for Warren Buffett

Allen Johnson and Doug Clark betrayed North Carolina's employees
for Warren Buffett
.
.
How to save $20,967,663 for the City of Durham's employees invested in ICMA-RC's 457 retirement plan

http://greensboroperformingarts.blogspot.com/2016/05/how-to-save-20967663-for-city-of.html

Greensboro's News and Record is directly responsible 

for North Carolina and the City of Greensboro's employees 

paying more for pension and retirement investments than necessary,

as they have known for years and did nothing

Now Mary Vigue is in charge of a legal Ponzi scheme called Say Yes to Education and Say Yes Guilford whose business model skims profits for administrators and vendors meant for college scholarships for Guilford County students with monies donated by local foundations, managed for a profit by the Community Foundation of High Point, and the Community Foundation of Greensboro, who's Walker Sanders lied to get additional taxpayer funding for Greensboro's STPAC with the help of Matt Brown, City Council and City staff, including Rick Lusk.

China Containerized Freight Index; What Greensboro's elites and purchased puppets don't see coming

http://wolfstreet.com/2016/04/17/china-ocean-freight-index-collapses-to-record-low/

"Relentless deterioration meets stunning overcapacity.

...This chart shows the continuing collapse of containerized freight rates from China to the rest of the world:

...China’s exports have plunged...

The amount it costs to ship containers from China to ports around the world, a function of the quantity of goods to be shipped and the supply of vessels to ship them, just dropped to a new historic low.

The China Containerized Freight Index (CCFI) tracks contractual and spot-market rates for shipping containers from major ports in China to 14 regions around the world. It reflects the unpolished and ugly reality of the shipping industry in an environment of deteriorating global trade.

For the latest reporting week, the index dropped 0.6% to 636.14, its lowest level ever. 

Think Rick Lusk, Larry Davis or Jim Westmoreland see the implications?

I assure you they don't

They are too busy justifying taxpayer funded handouts to City Council's patrons

For the January through March period – to iron out the monthly volatility associated with the Lunar New Year holiday – exports are down 9.6% year-over year. 

Specifically:

To the US -8.8%

To Hong Kong -6.5%

To Japan -5.5%

To South Korea -11.2%

To Taiwan -3.7%

To the countries in the ASEAN -13.7%

To the EU -6.9%

To South Africa -29.6% (!)

To Brazil -47.2% (!!)

To Australia -1.9%

To New Zealand -12.4%.

...what had already been an overcapacity problem turned into a self-inflicted nightmare for carriers. They’d assumed ever since the bouts of QE and zero-interest-rate policies started that central banks had their back. They’d smelled the lure of cheap money. And they’d fallen for the central-bank propaganda that “bold” monetary policies could actually stimulate the real economy, the goods-consuming economy. And so, imagining years of big-fat growth, they ordered ships, including the newest mega-sized container ships. And as these new ships were delivered over the past couple of years, carriers embarked on a fight for market share by cutting prices.

This culminated in 2015 with the delivery of new ships that added a record 1.7 million TEU of capacity to the global fleet, just when growth in global trade was grinding down.

...The Chinese have among the highest savings rates in the world. But 75% of their wealth is in real estate. They’ve overinvested in one illiquid and bubbly asset that they wrongly believe can only go higher. But when prices break down, it will devastate consumer demand and reverberate around the world. 

...China’s unprecedented real-estate wealth implosion will make Japan’s look benign. Cities like Vancouver, Sydney, Melbourne, Singapore, San Francisco, L.A., New York, and London – anywhere that thrives on affluent Chinese laundering their money out of their country – will hear that sucking sound as well!

Real estate prices are beginning to plummet in many cities. With 75% of Chinese wealth tied up in real estate, the implosion of this bubble will trigger the domino effect, just when the foundations of the over-indebted economy are already cracking. It will devastate the economy and reverberate around the world.