[foobar10000]

Well - there is a giant push to allow non-qualified investors to invest their 401k (and roth and whatever) into the private equities market - pre-IPO companies and such.

I can't shake the feeling of a grand fleecing incoming - and honestly, most big financial companies I know are against it because the blowback of inevitably bankrupting the firefighters&nurses pension fund will be congressional hearings and piercings of corporate veils.

Seems like the feds are pushing for it - for reasons I cannot fathom.

[59percentmore]

There is talk among the more conspiracy-minded folk that short exposure to companies that were supposed to go bankrupt, and then didn't, has been rolled into esoteric financial instruments that were sold to retirement funds. If these companies in particular weather a downturn, while everything else is bleedig profusely, it'll be like a double whammy; the short hedge turned into another knife.