What YOU can do to fight back - IFT limit

[James48843]

Basic question for the audience: Is this Long fella actually responsible for this - or is he carrying someone else's torch - the WA post biop had him as 40 yo in office for 6 months?

The problem is not fundementally Long. It's Tracey Ray, the Chief Investment Officer, who came from Maryland State Pension office (where they didn't sell, they only bought stocks), and her inabiltiy to see real costs compared to industry, and her inability to hear the people who were telling her that there isn't a problem.

The ETAC member sub for Colleen Kelly told me she had-took Ray to the TIAA CREF rep she used to know, and they talked for an hour- but when Ray wrote up the meeting minutes, and gave it to the board, Ray only wrote the points that supported her position, not the point that the TIAA CREF rep was making- that there is no problem with costs, and that TSP should be happy to have costs so low.

Long is not, in my opinion, culpable, except to the extent that he has failed to recongize the flaws in Ray's logic and data. For that, he is on the hotseat because he is the head guy.

But the real issues are:

1. Ray is wrong
2. The ETAC goes along with whatever the Board wants, without being fully engaged and looking into the data themselves,
3. The Board is wrong, in that it is going along with Ray without really looking into the data themselves,
4. There is no mechanism to communicate with the Thirft Board members themselves,
5. There is no mechanism for those who are NOT members of the direct ETAC groups to be able to have input into policy.

And that, my friends, is where we are today.

 

[Braveheart]

CONGRESSIONAL UPDATE: I just spoke with a staff member in my Congresswoman's office. Here's what he shared with me:

- Senator Collins is currently (3:00 EST) being briefed by the TSP reps. Her staff will have some indication of the Senator's view of this after the briefing is over.

- He spoke with the Oversight Committee (Subcommittee on Federal Workforce, Postal Service, and the District of Columbia).
* The Majority members (Dems) are quite satisfied with the actions the TSP Board is taking. They aren't interested in the facts.
* The Minority group (Rep) are in a "wait and see" mode.
BLUF: No one is doing anything to slow down or interfere.

- I raised the issue of the potential violation of Federal Code due to the TSP Board already limiting interfund transfers for those "frequent offenders". He will attempt to get a ruling from counsel on this matter.
**I'M PUSHING FOR A TEMPORARY INJUNCTION. IT'S NOT EASY**

His advice was for us to contact the sub-committe members directly.:notrust:
Danny K. Davis, Chairman
Kenny Marchant, Ranking Member

Anyone in MAINE should contact Senator Collins office IMMEDIATELY!! by phone, e-mail, fax, any and all means possible. This appears to be our best possible foot-in-the-door on this issue.

I'll keep you posted as I get more info.

Senator Collins would not be briefed by the TSP Reps who are they ? She would have to call for an immediate Hearing of the TSP and her Committee they stalled on her before and ignored Congress so if she was contacted by anyone or if her office contacted anyone of the TSP then it would not be on the record. There is no way Senator Collins would take a briefing from the TSP since she exposed them in 2003 and 2004 and found them QUILTY of WASTE AND ABUSE. All that is stated would be/must be on the record in a hearing. This involves 4 MILLION EMPLOYEES there is no way she would take that on without a Hearing. I would re-check that staff member. That is waaay to much responsibility to put on the word of a staff member.

 

[amoeba]

So is there a politician - or a candidate - who is going to fight for us? Or are these different degrees of lip service?

I have my doubts about that branch of government right now; might have better luck with independent oversight at this point (OIG,OSC).

Basic question for the audience: Is this Long fella actually responsible for this - or is he carrying someone else's torch - the WA post biop had him as 40 yo in office for 6 months?

 

[TSPinWV]

CONGRESSIONAL UPDATE: I just spoke with a staff member in my Congresswoman's office. Here's what he shared with me:

- Senator Collins is currently (3:00 EST) being briefed by the TSP reps. Her staff will have some indication of the Senator's view of this after the briefing is over.

- He spoke with the Oversight Committee (Subcommittee on Federal Workforce, Postal Service, and the District of Columbia).
* The Majority members (Dems) are quite satisfied with the actions the TSP Board is taking. They aren't interested in the facts.
* The Minority group (Rep) are in a "wait and see" mode.
BLUF: No one is doing anything to slow down or interfere.

- I raised the issue of the potential violation of Federal Code due to the TSP Board already limiting interfund transfers for those "frequent offenders". He will attempt to get a ruling from counsel on this matter.
**I'M PUSHING FOR A TEMPORARY INJUNCTION. IT'S NOT EASY**

His advice was for us to contact the sub-committe members directly.:notrust:
Danny K. Davis, Chairman
Kenny Marchant, Ranking Member

Anyone in MAINE should contact Senator Collins office IMMEDIATELY!! by phone, e-mail, fax, any and all means possible. This appears to be our best possible foot-in-the-door on this issue.

I'll keep you posted as I get more info.

 

[James48843]

Anidoc said:

LMAO! The number keeps changing. What happened to 3000? Soon we will be the "Bad 4000"!!! I bet they're shooting for 5,000.

Quote:
That's down from the 3,775 whom the TSP had identified as frequent traders, who shift their investments every few days in an attempt to beat the stock market.
Quote:
Of the 3,500 participants who received letters,

When they first talked about it, it was the "3000".

Then the TSPSPARTANS began to organize and fight back.

When we had over 2,000 signatures on the on-line petition, it suddenly became the "3,300" people.

Then, when we gathers 3,000 signatures- it suddenly became "3,500 participants recevied letters". And Stephan Barr commented that he wondered if the 3,500 letters were the same 3,000 people who signed the petition....

Then, when we crossed 3,500 signatures on the petition, it becomes the "3,775 whom the TSP had identified as frequent traders, "

Today, as of now, there are 3,682 petition signatures at http://tspshareholder.org.


Have you signed yet?

Have you asked your office co-workers to sign?

Have you asked all your military unit members to sign?

We need to get 10,000 signatures, and quick. If each person who signed, gets three others to sign this week, we'll top 10,000.

JUST SAY NO TO TSP LIMITS.

 

[amoeba]

Well here's what I've been up to. I called TSP yesterday and asked who I file a Waste, Fraud, and Abuse charge against Gregory T. Lone (Executive Director). They were very evasive and said they would research it and let me know. I also sent an e-mail to the General Counsel and recieved the following reply:

Dear Mr. XXXX:

As the Agency's general counsel, my role is to provide advice to the
Board and to the Agency's staff. As a consequence, I cannot advise you
on this matter.

Sincerely,

Tom Emswiler

Here's what I sent him first:
Sir, My name is XXXXX, I am a TSP participant and I would like
to file a Waste, Fraud, and Abuse complaint and/or an EEO complaint
against Mr. Gregory T. Long of your organization. I believe fraud has
been committed by Mr. Long and that age discrimination may be part of
what is being done by Mr. Long.

Here was my reply:
Mr. Emswiler,

I am not looking for advise. I am told you have a small agency. You do not have any contact information available online that I can find. I am looking for contact information or forms to file my complaint, nothing more. The supervisor I talked to, Kathy Bantley, on the phone told me that I should contact the legal department and that your e-mail system was only internal e-mail (she lied!). Please don't give me any advise that could be a conflict of interest, just tell me who to file my complaint with. Assume you are replying to my congressman, because that's who will ultimately be seeing this. Thank you for your attention to this matter.

Sincerely,
XXXXXXX

I called and got a phone number for the board (202-942-1460) and talked to Sue Peine, Benefits Operations Manager, and she told me to write congress. I told her my call was being recorded for training purposes... she tried to call her legal department and couldn't get through. She just called me back and told me she would not help in any way getting information on how to file a EEO or Waste, Fraud and Abuse Complaint. She was definately pissed to be told I was recording her.

Mr. Emswiler's e-mail is temswil@tsp.com...

I think we should move money every day until our deadline and then send a TSP-50 everyday there after. If enough of us do that, they may get the idea we are not happy. I'm seeing a lot of banter here, is anyone doing anything other than Jim? Mike

You need to file with the Office of Inspector General, and/or the Office of Special Counsel; this did work big time within our department this past year (using OIG) - someone very high up (presidential appointee) got investigated and the steel-toed boot resignation form for interest-peddling. :blink:OOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!! If you can dig up some real dirt (and someone where I worked did), they will have at it - they live for that sort of stuff - doesn't matter what political party. And the informant was protected and nobody even knows who that is still - 6 months later - names are blacked out in the testimony.

I just transferred out of S and I allocations to take effect tommorow morn :laugh:- 2 more weeks of fun and profit.

 

[skikodiak]

Well here's what I've been up to. I called TSP yesterday and asked who I file a Waste, Fraud, and Abuse charge against Gregory T. Lone (Executive Director). They were very evasive and said they would research it and let me know. I also sent an e-mail to the General Counsel and recieved the following reply:

Dear Mr. XXXX:

As the Agency's general counsel, my role is to provide advice to the
Board and to the Agency's staff. As a consequence, I cannot advise you
on this matter.

Sincerely,

Tom Emswiler

Here's what I sent him first:
Sir, My name is XXXXX, I am a TSP participant and I would like
to file a Waste, Fraud, and Abuse complaint and/or an EEO complaint
against Mr. Gregory T. Long of your organization. I believe fraud has
been committed by Mr. Long and that age discrimination may be part of
what is being done by Mr. Long.

Here was my reply:
Mr. Emswiler,

I am not looking for advise. I am told you have a small agency. You do not have any contact information available online that I can find. I am looking for contact information or forms to file my complaint, nothing more. The supervisor I talked to, Kathy Bantley, on the phone told me that I should contact the legal department and that your e-mail system was only internal e-mail (she lied!). Please don't give me any advise that could be a conflict of interest, just tell me who to file my complaint with. Assume you are replying to my congressman, because that's who will ultimately be seeing this. Thank you for your attention to this matter.

Sincerely,
XXXXXXX

I called and got a phone number for the board (202-942-1460) and talked to Sue Peine, Benefits Operations Manager, and she told me to write congress. I told her my call was being recorded for training purposes... she tried to call her legal department and couldn't get through. She just called me back and told me she would not help in any way getting information on how to file a EEO or Waste, Fraud and Abuse Complaint. She was definately pissed to be told I was recording her.

Mr. Emswiler's e-mail is temswil@tsp.com...

I think we should move money every day until our deadline and then send a TSP-50 everyday there after. If enough of us do that, they may get the idea we are not happy. I'm seeing a lot of banter here, is anyone doing anything other than Jim? Mike

 

[FundSurfer]

Has anybody who was not initially identified recieved a letter telling them they could be cut off? I made more than 3 transfers in February but have not gotten a letter. Just curious if anyone else has.

 

[camper65]

Hey, Can we do a T-Shirt that say's "I'm one of the 549 and proud of it!" !!! LOL

 

[Braveheart]

Another shot fired-

Stephan Barr in today's Washington Post: Go comment!

_-------------------------
Thrift Savings Plan Crackdown Is Working


[SIZE=-1]By Stephen Barr[/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]Tuesday, March 18, 2008; D04[/SIZE]

Efforts to discourage "market timers" in the Thrift Savings Plan are showing progress.

Only 549 people last month defied a new policy limiting trades in the TSP, a 401(k)-type program used by government employees, the plan's executive director said yesterday.

That's down from the 3,775 whom the TSP had identified as frequent traders, who shift their investments every few days in an attempt to beat the stock market.

The TSP became alarmed last year by such practices, contending that a relatively small number of government employees were driving up the plan's transaction costs, such as commissions to brokers, to the detriment of all of the plan's 3.8 million participants.

A letter was sent in late January to the frequent traders, asking them to adhere to a policy adopted in November that limits plan participants to two stock trades per month.

The number of interfund transfers dropped after that, but there were 549 who did not comply with the policy. Some of them have been moving large sums among the TSP's funds, with one account holder transferring $1 million in and out of the funds.

As a result, the TSP will reprogram computers to block the 549 participants from making electronic transfers, effective March 31. To order an investment change, they will have to mail in a paper form, said Gregory T. Long, the TSP's executive director.

Because of mail-delivery and handling times, it should effectively stop participants from using a long-term savings program for short-term purposes.

The crackdown has led to about 100 complaints from participants and the formation of an Internet-based campaign to protest trading restrictions. But the protests do not seem likely to derail the TSP's policy.

On March 10, the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board, which sets TSP policies, published a proposed rule to limit trading in the plan. Under the rule, participants may make two interfund transfers in a month. After those two trades are made, the participant may make an additional transfer into the plan's government-securities fund, which the rule describes as a "safe harbor" because it has been designed to never lose money.

The thrift board will accept comments on its policy change through April 9.

The restriction should not affect most government employees who invest in the plan. According to the rule, more than 99 percent of the TSP's participants requested 12 or fewer interfund transfers in 2007.
The frequent traders often focused on the TSP's international fund, which tracks the Morgan Stanley Europe, Australasia and Far East Index, the rule says. The TSP international fund has been a top performer, gaining 26.32 percent in 2006 and 11.43 percent in 2007.

But it is down 9.13 percent since the start of this year, and many government employees have pulled out of the international and other stock funds in the past few months as volatility has increased on Wall Street and overseas.

For example, TSP participants transferred large amounts out of stocks in January, moving $4.4 billion into government securities and $1.3 billion into bonds. Last month, they transferred $810 million into government securities and $242 million into bonds, according to data released at yesterday's board meeting.

Wall Street's recent slump has pulled down the TSP's overall value. Account balances have dropped by $8.7 billion since December, to $222.9 billion last month.


Stephen Barr's e-mail address is barrs@washpost.com.




-------------------------------------------------------------
You can go write a comment here:

Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/17/AR2008031702409.html


And let Mr. Barr know what you think, too.

Who was his source for all this information ? Mr. Long can someone format and paste the entire Hillary Clinton Thread to Mr. Barr. It appears that Mr. Long took all of 1 day to rush a report to the Washington post did he tell the Washington Post he lost 100 Million of our money was found guilty by the Senate and are in violation of the law just as they were since 2000. There is corruption here at the TSP and Mr. Barr took the bait and did a 1 sided story without getting all the facts.

 

[James48843]

Another shot fired-

Stephan Barr in today's Washington Post: Go comment!

_-------------------------
Thrift Savings Plan Crackdown Is Working


[SIZE=-1]By Stephen Barr[/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]Tuesday, March 18, 2008; D04[/SIZE]

Efforts to discourage "market timers" in the Thrift Savings Plan are showing progress.

Only 549 people last month defied a new policy limiting trades in the TSP, a 401(k)-type program used by government employees, the plan's executive director said yesterday.

That's down from the 3,775 whom the TSP had identified as frequent traders, who shift their investments every few days in an attempt to beat the stock market.

The TSP became alarmed last year by such practices, contending that a relatively small number of government employees were driving up the plan's transaction costs, such as commissions to brokers, to the detriment of all of the plan's 3.8 million participants.

A letter was sent in late January to the frequent traders, asking them to adhere to a policy adopted in November that limits plan participants to two stock trades per month.

The number of interfund transfers dropped after that, but there were 549 who did not comply with the policy. Some of them have been moving large sums among the TSP's funds, with one account holder transferring $1 million in and out of the funds.

As a result, the TSP will reprogram computers to block the 549 participants from making electronic transfers, effective March 31. To order an investment change, they will have to mail in a paper form, said Gregory T. Long, the TSP's executive director.

Because of mail-delivery and handling times, it should effectively stop participants from using a long-term savings program for short-term purposes.

The crackdown has led to about 100 complaints from participants and the formation of an Internet-based campaign to protest trading restrictions. But the protests do not seem likely to derail the TSP's policy.

On March 10, the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board, which sets TSP policies, published a proposed rule to limit trading in the plan. Under the rule, participants may make two interfund transfers in a month. After those two trades are made, the participant may make an additional transfer into the plan's government-securities fund, which the rule describes as a "safe harbor" because it has been designed to never lose money.

The thrift board will accept comments on its policy change through April 9.

The restriction should not affect most government employees who invest in the plan. According to the rule, more than 99 percent of the TSP's participants requested 12 or fewer interfund transfers in 2007.
The frequent traders often focused on the TSP's international fund, which tracks the Morgan Stanley Europe, Australasia and Far East Index, the rule says. The TSP international fund has been a top performer, gaining 26.32 percent in 2006 and 11.43 percent in 2007.

But it is down 9.13 percent since the start of this year, and many government employees have pulled out of the international and other stock funds in the past few months as volatility has increased on Wall Street and overseas.

For example, TSP participants transferred large amounts out of stocks in January, moving $4.4 billion into government securities and $1.3 billion into bonds. Last month, they transferred $810 million into government securities and $242 million into bonds, according to data released at yesterday's board meeting.

Wall Street's recent slump has pulled down the TSP's overall value. Account balances have dropped by $8.7 billion since December, to $222.9 billion last month.


Stephen Barr's e-mail address is barrs@washpost.com.




-------------------------------------------------------------
You can go write a comment here:

Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/17/AR2008031702409.html


And let Mr. Barr know what you think, too.

 

[James48843]

Note to all:

Govexec.com ran this story- now is the opportunity to go over, express your thoughts, and wiegh in in the comments section:
---------------------------------------------

TSP trading activity down, officials say

By Brittany R. Ballenstedt
bballenstedt@govexec.com
March 17, 2008

Efforts to reduce the amount of trading activity among participants in the Thrift Savings Plan are working, officials said Monday.

At a monthly meeting of the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board, officials said interfund transfers declined significantly in February, largely due to a proposed plan that seeks to discourage frequent trading among more than 3,500 TSP participants.

TSP officials sent letters to the frequent traders in January, urging them to scale back their interfund transfers to three per month. The letters generated some negative responses, but also a fair number of supportive messages, and even a few apologies from participants who did not realize their actions were causing problems, said TSP Executive Director Gregory Long.

Of the 3,500 participants who received letters, however, 549 exceeded the interim three-per-month rule in February, Long said. TSP officials sent follow-up letters to those participants, requiring them to trade by mail starting in April, he added.

"I think the 549 people generally are not thrilled about this, but our best interest is to look out for all 4 million [participants]," Long said.

Last week, the board published proposed rules in the Federal Register that would allow participants only two interfund transfers per month. Thereafter, additional transfers would be allowed only into the government securities (G) fund.

The change is a result of an analysis by TSP officials on the impact of trading activity on fund management and transaction expenses. Officials studied the fund with the highest costs -- the international (I) fund -- and found that in September and October of 2007, the average daily trade amount was $224 million, far above the daily trade amounts of $49 million in 2006 and $27 million in 2005.

Officials said on Monday that interfund transfer activity has decreased significantly since the interim rules were implemented. During January, for example, the plan executed 260,044 interfund transfers, with more than 40,000 on Jan. 22 alone. The number of trades fell to 137,320 in February, Long said, noting that interim restrictions and market volatility contributed to the decline.

In a March 7 letter to members of the Employee Thrift Advisory Council, which consists of labor unions and other federal employee groups, Long said the proposed trading restrictions were far more liberal than approaches approved by the Securities and Exchange Commission and used by other funds or plans to curtail excessive fund transfers.

Long also told ETAC members that he will send another letter to the 549 frequent traders at the end of March, explaining how to request interfund transfers by mail. Those participants will follow that process until the draft regulations are finalized and implemented, May 1 at the earliest, he said.


Source: http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=39537&dcn=todaysnews




(Note: 260,000 trades in January were not done by the 549 "bad" people. It was everybody jumping off the cliff. Those who made it out safely are far ahead than those who rode it down, and there was little reason to move much in February anyway).

 

[James48843]

If you are represented by any of the unions who are mebers of the ETAC, then you can file an unfair labor practice charge against the Union that is supposed to represent you.

However, I would point out, that the FLRA's Chief Counsel "disappeared" in the first week of March. What that means is that the FLRA can investigate, but will be unable to issue a ULP charge against the union until a new one is named.

 

[tsptalk]

Okay, follow me on this. If a government employee does not do his job and takes his paycheck, at some point he is frauding the government. He is taking funds from the government and not doing what he is hired to do. At some point it crosses the line from a performance issue into a fraud issue. The government has a vehicle to deal with fraud issues, the Waste, Fraud, and Abuse system.

So, how does this tie into what is going on with our TSP? Today, I got a registered letter saying because I made three electronic fund transfers (EFTs) in February I can no longer make EFTs and must make any trades I do by mail. I now believe that the TSP is not doing what is was set up to do by Congress and that they have crossed the line from a performance issue to a fraud issue. With that in mind, I am going to start to figure out how to file a Waste, Fraud, and Abuse complaint against the head of the TSP. Additionally, since I am retired and over 40 years old, as far as I know I have been singled out because of my age and feel that I have an age discrimination complaint as well. Now me filing those complaints really probably won't matter much. But if a hundred or a thousand of us file similar complaints it will cost them more than the EFTs does.

I knew one union guy, who was the president of a small local, that filed so many "unfair labor practices" against his command that they had to hire an additional attorney just to deal with his complaints. There are rules that they just can't ignore these complaints. If I remember the average EEO complaint (the age discrimination may be an EEO complaint) cost the governement something like $2600 each.

If we can bury them in formal complaints in an area that they don't expect it (even if they ultimately have to dismiss the complaints, they have to process them formally) they may feel the heat and do something to fix their broken system.

Let me know if you interested in starting something like this. Thanks for reading. Mike

Welcome Mike!
If you don't hear from james on this, you may want to send him a PM (private message). If he doesn't have too much on his plate, it sounds like something he would be interested in.

 

[jeburnside]

I'm gonna say to hell with it all and cash out at the end of the month. The TSP has become a vehicle which I don't want my money in if I can't manage it the way I choose.

 

[Stoplight]

Cool! $100 x"3000" = $30,000....that's enough to start our OWN 401K! LOL! Seriously though, it would be a sizeable chunk for the nonprofit to invest, and we could use the proceeds to fight the battle. How about it?

Perhaps we could use $100 of our rebate check that's supposed to come out and make us all happy and confident again

I'm game....

Isn't there a thread somewhere about what we're going to do with our rebate check ? Maybe I should post there, if I could find it :blink:


Stoplight...

 

[skikodiak]

Okay, follow me on this. If a government employee does not do his job and takes his paycheck, at some point he is frauding the government. He is taking funds from the government and not doing what he is hired to do. At some point it crosses the line from a performance issue into a fraud issue. The government has a vehicle to deal with fraud issues, the Waste, Fraud, and Abuse system.

So, how does this tie into what is going on with our TSP? Today, I got a registered letter saying because I made three electronic fund transfers (EFTs) in February I can no longer make EFTs and must make any trades I do by mail. I now believe that the TSP is not doing what is was set up to do by Congress and that they have crossed the line from a performance issue to a fraud issue. With that in mind, I am going to start to figure out how to file a Waste, Fraud, and Abuse complaint against the head of the TSP. Additionally, since I am retired and over 40 years old, as far as I know I have been singled out because of my age and feel that I have an age discrimination complaint as well. Now me filing those complaints really probably won't matter much. But if a hundred or a thousand of us file similar complaints it will cost them more than the EFTs does.

I knew one union guy, who was the president of a small local, that filed so many "unfair labor practices" against his command that they had to hire an additional attorney just to deal with his complaints. There are rules that they just can't ignore these complaints. If I remember the average EEO complaint (the age discrimination may be an EEO complaint) cost the governement something like $2600 each.

If we can bury them in formal complaints in an area that they don't expect it (even if they ultimately have to dismiss the complaints, they have to process them formally) they may feel the heat and do something to fix their broken system.

Let me know if you interested in starting something like this. Thanks for reading. Mike

 

[Asylum]

They are trying to keep us working longer to delay the time when we bankrupt the government when we become eligible for SS and Medicare.

WHICH WE HAVE PAID FOR, for ourselves AND our parents, btw, you younger fedworkers. So sthu about US costing YOU money.

sthu = stfu but 'nicer'..??

 

[Tomncath]

Cool! $100 x"3000" = $300,000....that's enough to start our OWN 401K! LOL! Seriously though, it would be a sizeable chunk for the nonprofit to invest, and we could use the proceeds to fight the battle. How about it?

I'm in, sure would like to hear from James though....

 

[Asylum]

That's still more than $100.

yep... :nuts: