Via Truthout Dean Baker points to continuing insistent of President Obama to keep Social Security ‘on the table’. Dean Baker has a take on some numbers surrounding the politics and stories politicans offer: While most of the DC insiders probably don’t understand the chained CPI, everyone else should recognize that this technical fix amounts to […]
I was watching C span Washington Journal this morning. Rep Marsha Blackburn was the guest. I got to listen to her explanation of how the Social Security funds flow and just had to post the clip. Copied from the transcript of the clip: THEIRS MONEY THAT GOES TO MEDICARE AND SOCIAL SECURITY AND I THINK […]
The Northwest Plan for a Real Social Security Fix was first introduced and revised in 2009. Obviously it was never adopted. Still the basic mechanism remains the same as does the rationale and working assumptions and in what follows I am going to assume a certain knowledge of the mechanics of Social Security finance and […]
The Northwest Plan for a Real Social Security Fix was introduced and then revised in 2009, explaining why the post link references ‘Vers 2.0’. What makes the NW Plan ‘real’ is that it is both permanent and contingent. To explain this mild paradox lets take an analogy. Let’s say you have a 1935 Duesenberg that […]
Social Security Data Mining Mrs. Rustbelt, the sweet young lady I married, decided to investigate future benefits from Social Security, even though she is only “39.” I am her designated data entry clerk, so we sit down and establish an account and log-in for her. Near the end of the set-up process the software tells […]
Bruce Webb brings an interesting perspective to the current situation as pundits and politicians figure out ‘what is acceptable’ and what ‘they can live with’ her at AB and at his new website Social Security Defender: (see link below): Scheduled vs Payable Benefits: three definitions of Solvency As usual click to embiggen. When it comes […]
Salon writer Natasha Lennard reports that a sticking point around Social Security stalled ‘fiscal cliff’ back and forth rejoinders between the two parties, but also points out that the topic continues to be on the table (and has been offered by President Obama before these talks a couple years ago). Notice both parties using the […]
Eric Larson is interviewed about Social Security and his new book The People’s Pension: The War Against Social Security from Reagan to Obama (AK Press, Spring 2012): Eric Laursen is an independent journalist who’s been covering political and financial news for more than a quarter-century. He’s been studying Social Security for the past 15 years, […]
Barkley Rosser at Econospeak opines on: Bill Keller Joins The Cut Social Security Gang In today’s New York Times, former editor Bill Keller has an especially obnoxious column about baby boomer entitlement. I am not going to dispute at all his listing of various selfishnesses that we baby boomers have indulged in from Gordon Gekko type […]
Well the answer is in the above figure, or actually answers because the post title actually hides multiple questions depending on your view of Social Security generally. This is going to get kind of long so I will take it below the fold right away. There are actually three lines represented in the figure: scheduled […]