federal 401k-style plan) policy pays China, RF

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Hexenherz 10/25/19 7:32:52 PM #1:	The friggin' Secretary of the Navy published an article about how wrong this is: Imagine retiring after a long career serving in uniform, only to learn that your savings all those years had helped fund advanced weapons systems for Americas adversaries. This tragedy will soon become reality unless a decision by the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board is immediately reversed. The FRTIB manages nearly $600 billion, making it one of the worlds largest retirement funds. Its Thrift Savings Plan is the federal-government equivalent of a 401(k), and any federal employee with a retirement fund through his job is a member of the TSP. One of the most important investment components of the TSP is an international fund known as the I Fund. Its $40 billion of capital is invested in companies around the world to manage risk and benefit from overseas growth. Yet the list of countries currently eligible for I Fund investments does not include developing economies. That will soon change because the FRTIB voted to change the index it uses to guide its investments. In 2017 the board elected to adopt the All Countries World Index, which will include adversary states such as China and Russia. Set to take effect next year, the transition will force the FRTIB to invest about $3.3 billion of federal employees savings in state-owned and state-directed firms in China, and hundreds of millions more in Russian firms. Consider one example, the Aviation Industry Corp. of China. It produces many of the weapons systems you may have seen gleaming on display during Chinas Oct. 1 military parade in Tiananmen Square. These lethal systems include state-of-the-art jet fighters like the Shenyang J-31 (allegedly based on stolen blueprints of the U.S. F-35), and the Z-19 reconnaissance and attack helicopter, which comes equipped with missiles capable of downing aircraft, sinking ships and countering missiles. Foreign weapons manufacturers arent the only troublesome companies that would suddenly become eligiblethe new index includes firms the U.S. has labeled as sanctions violators, fraudulent actors, intellectual-property thieves and human-rights abusers. China Mobile has been banned from the U.S. market by the Federal Communications Commission because of surveillance concerns. Hangzhou Hikvision, which makes the cameras that surveil the detention camps holding more than a million Uighurs in northwest China, is under U.S. Commerce Department sanctions because of its human-rights abuses. Yet federal retirees dollars will flow freely to these companies. In support of such insanity, the FRTIB may argue that its fiduciary responsibility is to generate robust investment returns, with no exception for national security. Even that argument fails to account for the risk of investing in autocratic nations. The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, which oversees the audits of companies listed on American stock exchanges, has reported that it lacks sufficient access to determine whether audits of U.S.-listed Chinese companies pass muster by its standards. For firms listed on exchanges in mainland China, transparent oversight is virtually nonexistent. Most of these companies would be dubious investments no matter how great their reported figures look. As secretary of the Navy, I have a duty to represent the dedicated members of Americas naval forces and ensure that, as investors, they are not unwittingly helping to underwrite the threats China and Russia pose to their lives. For the good of the country and those who serve it, the FRTIB must reverse its decision to adopt the All Countries World Indexand do it before a single dollar from its fund pays for a weapons system aimed in our direction. Mr. Spencer is secretary of the Navy. --- FFXIV: Lucius Hexenseele (Brynhildr) \| RS3: UltimaSuende . 99 WC/Fish/Cook/Fletch/Div/Mining/Smithing/Thieving, 80 crafting <cite>Hexenherz posted [p:929241148] in New Thrift... [t:78111311]...</cite> <quote>The friggin' Secretary of the Navy published an article about how wrong this is: Imagine retiring after a long career serving in uniform, only to learn that your savings all those years had helped fund advanced weapons systems for Americas adversaries. This tragedy will soon become reality unless a decision by the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board is immediately reversed. The FRTIB manages nearly $600 billion, making it one of the worlds largest retirement funds. Its Thrift Savings Plan is the federal-government equivalent of a 401(k), and any federal employee with a retirement fund through his job is a member of the TSP. One of the most important investment components of the TSP is an international fund known as the I Fund. Its $40 billion of capital is invested in companies around the world to manage risk and benefit from overseas growth. Yet the list of countries currently eligible for I Fund investments does not include developing economies. That will soon change because the FRTIB voted to change the index it uses to guide its investments. In 2017 the board elected to adopt the All Countries World Index, which will include adversary states such as China and Russia. Set to take effect next year, the transition will force the FRTIB to invest about $3.3 billion of federal employees savings in state-owned and state-directed firms in China, and hundreds of millions more in Russian firms. Consider one example, the Aviation Industry Corp. of China. It produces many of the weapons systems you may have seen gleaming on display during Chinas Oct. 1 military parade in Tiananmen Square. These lethal systems include state-of-the-art jet fighters like the Shenyang J-31 (allegedly based on stolen blueprints of the U.S. F-35), and the Z-19 reconnaissance and attack helicopter, which comes equipped with missiles capable of downing aircraft, sinking ships and countering missiles. Foreign weapons manufacturers arent the only troublesome companies that would suddenly become eligiblethe new index includes firms the U.S. has labeled as sanctions violators, fraudulent actors, intellectual-property thieves and human-rights abusers. China Mobile has been banned from the U.S. market by the Federal Communications Commission because of surveillance concerns. Hangzhou Hikvision, which makes the cameras that surveil the detention camps holding more than a million Uighurs in northwest China, is under U.S. Commerce Department sanctions because of its human-rights abuses. Yet federal retirees dollars will flow freely to these companies. In support of such insanity, the FRTIB may argue that its fiduciary responsibility is to generate robust investment returns, with no exception for national security. Even that argument fails to account for the risk of investing in autocratic nations. The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, which oversees the audits of companies listed on American stock exchanges, has reported that it lacks sufficient access to determine whether audits of U.S.-listed Chinese companies pass muster by its standards. For firms listed on exchanges in mainland China, transparent oversight is virtually nonexistent. Most of these companies would be dubious investments no matter how great their reported figures look. As secretary of the Navy, I have a duty to represent the dedicated members of Americas naval forces and ensure that, as investors, they are not unwittingly helping to underwrite the threats China and Russia pose to their lives. For the good of the country and those who serve it, the FRTIB must reverse its decision to adopt the All Countries World Indexand do it before a single dollar from its fund pays for a weapons system aimed in our direction. Mr. Spencer is secretary of the Navy. </quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
Hexenherz 10/25/19 7:33:38 PM #2:	Senate is calling for the board to reverse its decision, too: https://www.reuters.com/article/usa-trade-china-msci/update-1-senators-urge-u-s-retirement-fund-to-reverse-china-investment-decision-idUSL2N277123 --- FFXIV: Lucius Hexenseele (Brynhildr) \| RS3: UltimaSuende . 99 WC/Fish/Cook/Fletch/Div/Mining/Smithing/Thieving, 80 crafting <cite>Hexenherz posted [p:929241183] in New Thrift... [t:78111311]...</cite> <quote>Senate is calling for the board to reverse its decision, too: https://www.reuters.com/article/usa-trade-china-msci/update-1-senators-urge-u-s-retirement-fund-to-reverse-china-investment-decision-idUSL2N277123</quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
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Current Events > New Thrift Savings Plan (military/federal 401k-style plan) policy pays China, RF (+) Yeah! (+)

Current Events > New Thrift Savings Plan (military/federal 401k-style plan) policy pays China, RF