by Bruce Webb (first three sentences edited since original post a few minutes ago)The 2005 Report was a mild disappointment. The 2006 Report somewhat worse. 2007 showed some mild improvement but didn’t even get us back to 2005 numbers. Now the 2008 on the surface looked a lot brighter but most of that turned out […]
by Bruce Webb. Sorry for two posts in a day. But the raw data is important.OAS (Old Age Survivor) starting 2008 balance $2.023 trillionIntermediate Cost projection for year end $2.216 trillionLow Cost projection for year end $2.221 trillionPreliminary year end balance $2.203 trillion or up $180 billion for the year. DI (Disability) starting 2008 balance […]
Parts of the blogosphere are in an uproar over some Q&A the other day that some interpreted as Obama putting Social Security ‘reform’ on the table. Well for reasons outlined by Barkley Rosser (and posted below by Dan) I don’t think we have much to worry about to begin with. But even if the Obama […]
by Bruce WebbWhat does it take? A stake through the heart? A bullet through the brain? Baker and Krugman do some pushback.Dean Baker in his post The Post’s Jihad against Social Security points to this article Obama Predicts Years of Deficits over $1 trillion and notes that they don’t hesitate to single out the usual […]
How is Social Security holding up given the terrible employment numbers? Well not as bad as I had feared. OAS::Opening balance//Projected year end balance-Intermediate Cost//Y-O-Y Increase//Year end balance-Low Cost//Y-O-Y increase-Low Cost$2.023 trillion // $2.216 trillion //$193 billion// $2.221 trillion// $198 billion DI::Opening balance//Projected year end balance-Intermediate Cost//Y-O-Y Increase//Year end balance-Low Cost//Y-O-Y increase-Low Cost$214.9 billion//$218.7 billion//$3.8 […]
by Bruce Webb Paul Rosenberg has started an interesting series over at Open Left that in some ways could see my post What is the Nexus? as prologue. The first post in the series is Hegemony On Steroids–Episode 35,879: “The Neocons Couldn’t A Dunnit!” It starts by stating one set of revisionist talking points eagerly […]
In 1979 Peter Sellers starred in a brilliant movie about the ultimate in accidental Presidents. As the movie ends Chance the Gardiner has not actually been elevated to be Leader of the Free World but is well on his way. Because people could read meanings they wanted to hear into what he was saying. I […]
by Bruce WebbBack in the day even to hint at some of the subjects of Symbolman’s brilliant flash productions was to mark you as being infected with Bush Derangement Syndrome (BDS). But now in the waning days of Bush/Cheney maybe it is time to push back against the revisionism. Warning if you ever supported Bush […]
(Update. Not that it matters much at this point but I fixed the link to the Letter to President Clinton. BW 1/3/09) No I am not asking about a car or misspelling LexisNexis or even talking about a new sequel to the Matrix. It is instead the question to be applied to the following list […]
(By Bruce Webb. Well it is a slow night. So let me point you to perhaps the strongest indictment of Bush Iraq policy c.2002-2004. By the guy who General Tommy Franks followed into command. Bolding mine). Gen. Anthony Zinni, USMC, (Ret.) Remarks at CDI Board of Directors Dinner, May 12, 2004 I just came back […]