by Bruce Webb I have had occasion before to mention the “Leninist Strategy” for Social Security put forth in 1983 and followed by Social Security ‘reformers’ ever since. The strategy has three main pillars: One: reassure current retirees that their benefits won’t be cutTwo: convince younger workers that left unreformed Social Security just won’t be […]
Yesterday I attended the 6th Annual Goldman Sachs Emerging Markets conference in New York. My takeaway from the conference overall was that the risk-on sentiment that is driving massive inflows into EM funds is still very much present. Going forward, the conference participants generally see emerging markets as “different” from those ten years ago, and […]
Morning AB link: Marshall Auerback on BNN: (click on picture for video link; it takes a bit to load)
by Bruce Webb This may be too wonkish for the Virtual Summit, so let me try it out here. A lot of crosstalk on Social Security ‘crisis’ is a result of three different definitions of ‘crisis’ which I would sum up as follows: Crisis one: Social Security promised benefits which may not be payable.Crisis two: […]
by Bruce Webb I mention from time to time that I talk with a number of D.C. policy types about Social Security, but mostly don’t use names because the conversations are officially off the record. Well a group of them, spearheaded by Roger Hickey’s folks at Campaign for America’s Future, have gone on the record […]
Roosevelt Institute Senior Fellow Marshall Auerback and Braintruster at the New Deal 2.0 explores the possibility, and what it means if deficit hysteria continues unchecked: A recent poll by Douglas Schoen and Patrick Caddell suggests that swing voters in the US, who are key to the fate of the Democratic Party, care most about three […]
Crooks and Liars has us look at employers shifting the cost of health insurance to workers. In MA this shift will happen with public employees such as teachers probably soon as well. Health care costs soar for insured workers presents another chart to gain a perspective when someone says health insurance premiums will rise with […]
One of the many causes of the financial crisis was excessive reliance on excessively generous ratings of novel financial instruments. There are proposals to change the incentives faced by the bond rating agencies to prevent them from being so lax. I don’t think that any such reform is likely to be successful. I think it […]
by cactus Last week I wrote a post about some nonsense Glen Beck was peddling, with said nonsense originating with Thomas Woods. Woods claimed a smorgasbord of things, the dollar meal version being: 1. lefties talk up how the New Deal (big gubmint, tax hikes) saved the economy from the Great Depression but it didn’t […]