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

SS Actuary’s "Bombshell" Fizzles: Krasting Lays Egg

by Bruce Webb Regular readers of Angry Bear will be familiar with bond trader turned blogger Bruce Krasting and his, can we say non-standard conclusions about Social Security solvency. Well he is at it again today under the provocative title of SSTF – Steve Goss’s Bombshell – What Could it Mean?. SSTF means Social Security […]

Destroying Social Security to ‘Save’ It: the Arithmetic of Benefit Cuts

by Bruce Webb House Minority Leader John Boehner said in a statement marking the 75th anniversary that while the law has served the needs of millions of Americans seniors, the Social Security and Medicare Trustees have “repeatedly warned Congress and the American people that reforms are necessary or future benefits will be threatened.”He added that […]

On-budget vs "Unified Budget": Where Social Security Fits.

by Bruce Webb If I had to pick out the two biggest sources of confusion about Social Security finance it would have to be one, the relation of the Trust Funds to Public Debt and two, the relation of Social Security surplus/deficits to Budget Scoring. At Angry Bear we have discussed the equation Debt Held […]

2010 Social Security Report: Surprising Drop in 75 yr Actuarial Gap

by Bruce Webb Well surprising to me anyway. The 2009 Social Security Report projected a 75 year actuarial gap for combined OASDI of 2.00%. Between the structural change involved in changing the valuation period (as 2009 drops off and a new year 75 is added) and the current recession cutting into revenues I fully expected […]

Let the (Social Security) Games Begin! 2010 Report Released

by Bruce Webb Hot off the press. PDF of the 2010 Social Security Report: http://www.ssa.gov/OACT/TR/2010/tr10.pdf News Release: http://www.ssa.gov/pressoffice/pr/trustee10-pr-alt.pdf HTML version: Social Security Board of Trustees: Long-Range Financing Outlook Remains Unchanged Boy that title blew me away, as did the initial numbers: The Social Security Board of Trustees today released its annual report on the financial […]

Intergenerational Real Benefits in Social Security (Rosser Equation Illustrated)

by Bruce Webb In 2003 CBO published an Issue Brief illustrating the relative contribution of Aging and Real Benefit Growth to future Social Security spending called The Future Growth of Social Security: It’s Not Just Society’s Aging with results graphed above:. Discussion under the fold. Approximately 55 percent of the higher spending is due to […]