Wall Street to Workers: Give Us Your Retirement Savings and Stop Asking Questions

Big banks are more than happy to take workers' retirement funds—as long as those workers don't want to know what those banks are doing with the money.

BY David Sirota

If you are a public school teacher in Kentucky, the state has a message for you: You have no right to know the details of the investments being made with your retirement savings.

That was the crux of the declaration issued by state officials to a high school history teacher when he asked to see the terms of the agreements between the Kentucky Teachers’ Retirement System and the Wall Street firms that are managing the system’s money on behalf of him, his colleagues and thousands of retirees.