Lifted from comments here by Reader Jack, who recommends writing to your Congress representatives. Now this is probably not as satisfying as the (hat tip Yves Smith crosspost) post from Steve at the Daily Bail. Dear——-, I hope that you will be standing tall against the current forces of deception that are campaigning hard to […]

by Bruce WebbThe above though not yet widely released is a from a public document produced by the Social Security Office of the Chief Actuary. It shows the final results of the Simpson-Bowles Social Security proposal as percentage of benefits payable to various income levels compared to ‘scheduled’ and ‘payable’ benefits. Under current projections ‘payable’ […]

Economist View provides a few reactions to the The Fiscal Commission’s “Report”: NY Times: Panel Weighs Deep Cuts in Tax Breaks and Spending Real Time Economics: Deficit Commission’s $200 Billion in Proposed Spending Cuts Paul Krugman: Unserious People Brad DeLong: Yes, the Entitlement Commission Was an Unforced Error by the Obama Administration Ezra Klein: The […]

Robert Waldmann I made the following predictions on September 15 (the predictions are down in the comment thread). I guess R gain 5-6 (which is huge given the fact that this election is 6 years after 2004). To go way out on a limb, I guess R pickups in ND, AR, IN PA & IL […]

Seven steps to Social Security cuts by Bruce Webb was posted January 2010 this year at Angry Bear and has proven to be prophetic: ‘…is that the strategy to get major slashes to Social Security and Medicare takes an Seven Step and that this technique is not new and in fact mirrors the original plan […]

There will be plenty of reactions to the draft release of the fiscal draft proposal, but one caught my eye as I just came home. Reader HW at TPM has this reaction I took a very quick look at this document and what’s amazing to me is that they came up with these draconian cuts […]

Some of the recommendations as outlined by TPM from the Pres. Obama’s Bowles and Simpson fiscal commission: Social Security cuts: Index the retirement age to longevity — i.e., increase the retirement age to qualify for Social Security — to age 69 by 2075. Index Social Security yearly increases to inflation rather than wages, which will […]

Spencer The New York Times had blog commenting on the suggestion that we should return to a gold standard. (NYT Back to the gold standard) My question about such a proposal is what should be the price of gold in the new gold standard ? The 18th century gold standard system that so many people […]