11 savings to provide low-cost capital to the national security state, automate with robotics and artificial intelligence, and invest in space and the transition to a multi-planetary civilization. One particularly good example of this is General Electric. By some estimates, its pension fund is underfunded to the tune of $31 billion. However, during the time its pension fund became so underfunded, GE spent $45 billion to buy back its publicly traded common stock. The needed funds were there at one point; it’s just that the leadership of the com- pany decided to funnel it into stockholders’ hands rather than to the pensions of the employees who helped build the company. This is a political choice. It is not a financial crisis. It is part of a well-executed plan. It is a plan that has been engineered by two de- cades of deliberate central bank and government policies and related enforcement designed to cen- tralize and reorganize the economy accordingly. It is a conscious and intentional abrogation of legal obligations, just as the housing bubble represented a fraudulent inducement. The financial crisis is what happens to the benefi- ciaries and their families and the federal, state and local taxpayers who face higher taxes and reduced services. II. GLOBAL PENSION FUND ASSETS One of the best sources of current global pension fund statistics is the Organization of Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) based in Paris. OECD has 35 members, primarily developed countries and a few emerging mar- ket countries. In 2017, the OECD published Pension Markets in Focus, 2017 Edition that is an overview of the status of global pension funds. It is important to remember when reviewing OECD tables and charts that they are drawing from non-conforming national data sources. As of 2016, global pension fund assets totaled $40 trillion, of which $38 trillion was in OECD countries. Of that amount, $25 trillion was in the United States. So US pension assets are ap- proximately 62.5% of global pension fund assets for people who are approximately 4.3% of the world population. From the point of view of China, US pensioners are in very good shape. China has 18.3% of the world’s population and despite an aging popu- lation it has less than 1% of the world’s pension assets. Is there any wonder the Chinese are trying to create a global currency and is considering plans to reduce Treasury holdings? Chart: Source: OECD Global Pension Statistics