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Laurence Kotlikoff
Renowned economics professor Laurence Kotlikoff says SIPC (Securities Investor Protection Corporation) is an insurance scam from Fraud Street. Dr. Kotlikoff contends, "If you look at the history of their response as it's been discovered, they (SIPC) have been fighting tooth and nail never to pay a dollar. So, the situation is not that we don't have any insurance for your brokerage account, it's far worse. . . . There's a Ponzi scheme discovered every four days, according to a recent New York Times article. So, they can declare a fraud very easily." As an example, Dr. Kotlikoff gives someone who lost $2 million and is expecting to get back at least the SIPC insurance claim of $500,000, the maximum payout. Instead of getting money back, SIPC expects money back from you! Dr. Kotlikoff explains, "So, you are at double jeopardy here. It's not just that you can get totally screwed by a brokerage firm, which is happening every four days because a Ponzi scheme is being discovered, you can also be at great jeopardy by SIPC itself." Meaning, SIPC cannot only deny your claim, but it can sue you for any profits you made beyond your original investment if there are losses because of a fraudulent brokerage. Dr. Kotlikoff adds, "So, they are running a complete insurance scam. It's a disgrace. There is a bill in front of Congress that would correct this, but so far, members of Congress have not pushed it through."

Dr. Kotlikoff goes on to say,
"Earning a decent return on your investments is not being a winner; it's just having a normal economic life. That's what you are supposed to do. You are supposed to save and invest and enjoy the returns of your investments. So, to be labeled a 'winner' and not be labeled a victim, and be told that your remaining balance is totally uninsured, and you have to pay back everything you took out over the last six years is disgraceful. . . . It's also very, very dangerous. Right now, nobody should have a brokerage account. They should close them immediately and not spend your money for six years. If you spend your money . . . they can sue you for every dollar of return, and that can be far beyond what you put in because of compound interest. This is called a 'net equity clawback,'and it's a disgrace."
Are any brokerages safe? Dr. Kotlikoff says,
"You are not safe in any of these companies. . . . You don't know exactly what they are doing. You don't know if they are taking your securities and borrowing against them. You may have signed something with fine print that allows them to hypothecate your securities, and then they could borrow money and put on a big bet . . . now, they lost all the money and the brokerage goes under. That could be called a Ponzi scheme . . . anything can be called a Ponzi scheme. Anybody who has a brokerage account should move their money out and contact their member of Congress and get them to pass this bill because it's not going to be safe for anybody at any point in time to invest in a brokerage account unless this is changed. . . . The bill is called 'Restoring Main Street Investor Protection and Confidence Act.' SIPC has been engaged in such fraud that even the Securities and Exchange Commission has sued SIPC to get them to pay off the legitimate claims of the Stanford victims, the second largest Ponzi scheme after Madoff."
Dr. Kotlikoff goes on to warn of massive and ongoing Wall Street fraud. Dr. Kotlikoff says,
"Every day we are reading about a big bank being fined billions of dollars. Recently, Bank of America had a $16 billion fine the bank had to pay for selling fraudulent securities. They know they are selling you snake oil, and they are getting away with it, and nobody is going to jail. I call Wall Street, at this point, Fraud Street, and one of the biggest rackets is the SIPC brokerage account insurance - it's not really insurance. A fraud occurs and Wall Street, through SIPC, says we owe you nothing, and they sue you to get paid back. That's what we call an insurance scam. Wall Street, through SIPC, has been running a massive insurance scam. . . . In many ways, you could say SIPC is running its own Ponzi scheme."
Join Greg Hunter as he goes One-on-One with Boston University economics professor Laurence Kotlikoff and creator of Kotlikoff.net.

(There is much more in the video interview.)


After the Interview:

If you would like to follow the work of Professor Kotlikoff, you can go to his free website at Kotlikoff.net. If you want to find out about the enormous debt problem of the U.S., please go to www.theinformact.org. Other sites recommended by Professor Kotlikoff include: jpmadoff.com, www.thepurpleplans.org and www.thecommonsensetax.org.