Relevant and even prescient commentary on news, politics and the economy.

Hiroshima and the Elided Moral Question

Today is the 70th anniversary of the first deployment of a nuclear weapon against humans. Something that was followed three days later by the second and so far last such deployment. Which raises any number of moral questions. One is there something particularly immoral about nuclear warfare that does not apply to other methods, for […]

California Pays Off Arnie’s $15 billion 2004 Loan from Wall Street

California Pays off $14 Billion in Costly Debt From 2004 Promoting the borrowing in Proposition 57 was one of Schwarzenegger’s first acts in office, and he pitched the measure as a way to avoid public service cuts and tax increases. The state had the lowest credit rating among all 50 states in the nation at […]

RNC/Soccer League Debate: Relegation and Promotion

People who follow British Association Football (Soccer, Football, Footie) know that it consists of a number of tiered Leagues which have annual processes of relegation and promotion as the bottom performing teams move down a tier while the top performing ones in the lower tier move up. Play online and have the chance to win […]

Social Security Defender Archive: Including Northwest Plan Docs/Spreadsheets

I have been working off and on, well mostly off because of ‘life’ and ‘laziness’, since 2010 on a project I modestly called the Social Security Defender. It is all built around a Google account and so has a Google+ page, a blog, an e-mail address and a Google Drive. Today I am going live […]

Dean Baker on the 2015 SocSec Report and Real Wage

CEPR’s Dean Baker: Wage Growth Continues to be the Key to Social Security Solvency Dean Baker and colleague Mark Weisbrot have been making a steady case since their publication of the aptly named Social Security: the Phony Crisis back in 1999. In short Social Security does not face a structural demographic problem, instead it has […]

Is Jeremy Corbyn the Bernie Sanders of Britain?

Who is Jeremy Corbyn? Well it turns out that the British Labour Party is two weeks out from a leadership election after their shellacking in the last election. And the contest very much mirrors that of Sanders vs Clinton, with Corbyn representing Old Labour (Democratic Socialism) and the other candidates represent New Labour (Blairite Neo-Liberalism). […]

Tale of Two Charts: Medicare 2009 and 2015

Update: some guy named Krugman suggests that I am not totally off base here. The Disappearing Entitlements Crisis I hear he has an audience. Update two: Social; Security Defender Archive docs and spreadsheets Update(From main Angry Bear page you may need to click ‘Read More’ to see Charts) http://www.socialsecurity.gov/history/pdf/tr09summary.pdf http://www.ssa.gov/OACT/TRSUM/ http://www.ssa.gov/OACT/TRSUM/ 2009: Medicare Unsustainable. From […]

Table IV.B5: Social Security OAS and DI Actuarial Balances by 25 Year Subperiod

Table IV.B5.—Components of Summarized Income Rates and Cost Rates,Calendar Years 2015-89[As a percentage of taxable payroll]Lots of numbers here but the only ones want to focus on are those in the last column, those which show actuarial balances for each of the OAS and DI Trust Funds for for the next 25, 50 and 75 […]

2015 Social Security Report: Infinite Future Fun

Hmmm. I think I’ll just let people have fun figuring out what this all means. Hover over the image or double click and you should get legible version. Hint the meanings of ‘past’ ‘current’ and so ‘future participants’ might not mean exactly what they seem at first encounter. You can scroll to the text from […]

Social Security Report: What is the “Low Cost Alternative”

Well one answer it line I in the above figure from the 2015 Social Security Report. Figure II.D7.—Long-Range OASI and DI Combined Trust Fund Ratios Under Alternative Scenarios [Asset reserves as a percentage of annual cost] Under the definitions used by the Social Security Actuary and Trustees the program is ‘Solvent’ over the short term […]