Morning Thread is here every morning at 6:30 a.m., EDT.
Quote of the week:
“They quite literally can watch your ideas form as you type,” an unnamed intelligence officer told Barton Gellman and Laura Poitras of the Washington Post. “They” are the National Security Agency, and the Post report reveals that an N.S.A. program called Prism has, for the past six years, been “tapping directly into the central servers of nine leading U.S. Internet companies, extracting audio, video, photographs, e-mails, documents and connection logs that enable analysts to track a person’s movements and contacts over time.
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From the witty headline department.
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Speaking of spying, former KGB Officer Vladimir Putin is getting a divorce
A spokesman for President Vladimir V. Putin took the unusual step on Friday of announcing publicly that Mr. Putin is not in a romantic relationship, trying to quiet speculation that he and his wife of 29 years are divorcing to allow him to remarry.
Even a spymaster like Putin can't escape the
inquisitive eye of the press:
Though he mentioned no names, Mr. Peskov was in part addressing persistent rumors that Mr. Putin is involved with an Olympic gold medalist in rhythmic gymnastics and that the two have a child.
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The billionaires gathered at Bilderberg this weekend. There are so many far-fetched conspiracy theories about what has been hatched at Bilderberg that it's become a cliche to mention it. But still:
More than 100 of the world's most powerful people are at the former manor house near London for a secretive annual gathering that has attained legendary status in the eyes of anti-capitalist protesters and conspiracy theorists.
Our CEO celebrity icons are there, along with such champions of human rights as Henry Kissinger. There are no minutes taken, no agenda released, no cameras allowed at Bilderberg. It's where Billionaires go to feel special and important.
"When 130 of the leaders from all across the West get together, and many of these are billionaires, they are people who are immensely wealthy and immensely powerful," said Michael Meacher, a lawmaker from Britain's Labour Party.
"And when they all get together, it's not just to have a chat about the latest problem, it is to concert plans for the future of capitalism in the West. That is on a very different scale."
Martin Rowson of
The Guardian spoofs it
here.
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Let's move from billionaires to millionaires. Households with a net worth of a million dollars (excluding the value of their home) constitute 8.1 % of the population. Is that enough to retire on? You'd think so, but it might not be.
“We’re facing a crisis right now, and it’s going to get worse,” said Alicia Munnell, director of the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College. “Most people haven’t saved nearly enough, not even people who have put away $1 million.”
For people close to retirement, the problem is acute. The conventional financial advice is that the older you get, the more you should put into bonds, which are widely considered safer than stocks. But consider this bleak picture: A typical 65-year-old couple with $1 million in tax-free municipal bonds want to retire. They plan to withdraw 4 percent of their savings a year — a common, rule-of-thumb drawdown. But under current conditions, if they spend that $40,000 a year, adjusted for inflation, there is a 72 percent probability that they will run through their bond portfolio before they die.
The author suggests your best solution is to work longer, because you will die sooner that way.
So run out there and get to those jobs, boomers!
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Finally, all of these hardworking seventy-somethings should at least be taking their vitamins, right?
Uh, No.
Welcome to the Monday Morning Open Thread.