PGL and others have addressed many of the important points of contention in the debate between Mankiw and Baker-DeLong-Krugman (henceforth BDK, or simply The Trio) on the returns that privatized Social Security accounts could be expected to enjoy, so I have relatively little to add. But for those who are new to the whole discussion, […]
… Josh Marshall asks one: For two decades your Social Security payroll taxes have been used to offset the cost of upper-income tax cuts. If I’m not mistaken that money has been used at the highest rate (i.e., in absolute dollars terms per year) under this President Bush. The money is supposed to be paid […]
As a dog owner, I love Andrew’s title. While I appreciate the mention, I’d caution Andrew to read where I have parted company: At one point, I had mused that perhaps Andrew had a point here. But there’s a small problem with this line of reasoning – in particular my numerical example. The price-earnings ratio […]
Eduardo Porter’s New York Times article entitled Illegal Immigrants Are Bolstering Social Security With Billions describes how one Mexican citizen – along with perhaps seven million other “illegal immigrant” workers: are now providing the system with a subsidy of as much as $7 billion a year … Most immigration helps Social Security’s finances, because new […]
Bruce may be the only NRO econopundit worth reading but his latest is not a ringing endorsement for Bush’s brand of Soc. Sec. reform: One reason is that he has failed to make some arguments for reform that would buttress his case, such as the increase in economic growth from an expanded labor supply that […]
The IMF gets to the heart of the matter when it comes to today’s international financial imbalances: WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) – Global financial markets might not be prepared for potential shocks like worse-than-expected inflation data, particularly if the era of low interest rates is coming to a close, an IMF report said Tuesday. “There is little […]
Following up on CR’s post, I wish to provide a few links to the recent report from Richard DeKaser on “housing bubblettes” including a CNN summary that was fixated on the notion that housing was undervalued in Salt Lake City but overvalued in many Californian cities. My first reaction to this CNN story was not […]
The Wall Street Journal about 20 years ago had a cartoon of a man explaining the value of the dollar to his son. The son replied that he wanted his allowance in Swiss Francs. I thought of this cartoon as I read the latest from Kevin Hassett on why privatization is so crucial. Hassett and […]
I have taken to calling the housing market a “bubble”. But how do I define a bubble? A bubble requires both overvaluation based on fundamentals and speculation. It is natural to focus on an asset’s fundamental value, but the real key for detecting a bubble is speculation – the topic of this post. Speculation tends […]
Let’s join William Polley in celebrating the life of Pope John Paul II. We might also mourn his death as we are assured he has now joined the Lord that he served so ably. But no liberal or conservative partisan hack should politicize this Pope – as George will did today when Will compared the […]