Most of us, on each paycheck, pay tax payments towards some type of national pension plan. What's been going on over the last couple decades, is that national governments -who collect these payments- have been taking all the money and lending it to investors who then play that money on the market. Scary shit huh? What's worse is that the loss of these monies on the market is apparently the prime reason why there have been apparent shortages in pension funds available. At least, this is what has been described to me. Correct me on any innaccuracies because I am quite interested in this topic.