Beware America, President Obama has put politics into your pensions

The federal government is going to allow retirement investments to be subjected to politically correct funny business due to a new guidance issued by the U.S. Labor Department that puts the government’s thumb on the scale in favor of so-called “socially responsible” investments.

Prior to the Obama administration action, these politically correct investment vehicles needed to match their peers by meeting the same fiduciary standards in order to qualify for inclusion in a 401(k) or pension plan. In fact, in previous guidance offered the financial services industry, the Labor Department flatly stated that the occurrence of these funds in a qualified pension plan should be “rare.”

All that changes now, as the Labor Secretary flanked by the Chief Financial Officer of the Service Employees International Union opened the floodgates for investment schemes whose first priority is political change rather than return for the investor.

Why would the Obama administration allow pension fund managers and indeed, individual investors who control their own retirement accounts to gamble on politically motivated investments?

$8.4 trillion is why.

More