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

A Key Reason America is No Longer Great: The privatization of state and (especially) local governments, in both the services they provide and in the way these governments (especially the local ones) are funded. [UPDATED.]

Coberly/ July 21, 2016 10:26 am mike instead of begging to differ, why don’t you try to explain your case better? it sounds to me like you are arguing that ignoring traffic violations in black neighborhoods will result in more black on black crime including homicide. that could well be the case, but i don’t think […]

SOCIAL SECURITY TRUSTEES REPORT

by Dale Coberly SOCIAL SECURITY TRUSTEES REPORT An Overview of the Overview The 2016 Trustees Report  didn’t have much new to say, so the usual commentators were free to say what they have always said, which is mostly wrong. A careful reading of just the Overview (p 2 to 25 of the Report) will help […]

SOCIAL SECURITY, OBAMA, and the CRFB

by Dale Coberly SOCIAL SECURITY, OBAMA, and the CRFB Obama once offered to cut Social Security as part of a Grand Bargain with the Republicans.  Now he says he thinks Social Security ought to be expanded. The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB) answers him with their usual list of reasons why Social Security […]

Pensions, Social Security

Holiday present for you via Congress and the Cromnibus. Tucked into the massive spending bill Congress passed this weekend was legislation that reversed 40 years of federal law protecting retirees’ pensions.  The change will allow benefit cuts for up to 10 million workers, many of them part of a shrinking middle-class workforce in businesses such […]

VERY SHORT POST ON SOCIAL SECURITY DISABILITY INSURANCE

by Dale Coberly VERY SHORT POST ON SOCIAL SECURITY DISABILITY INSURANCE The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget has issued a “call for papers” with suggestions for “fixing” SSDI. I expect that by “fixing” they mean cutting people off and getting them back to work. After all, even people on IV’s could work as telephone […]

FINANCING SOCIAL SECURITY A BOB BALL APPROACH

by Dale Coberly FINANCING SOCIAL SECURITY A BOB BALL APPROACH Bob Ball proposed in 2007 (www.robertmball.org quoted in NASI “Fixing Social Security” Reno and Lavery, 2009, p 14) a “balancing rate increase.” This is the way his idea was described in the NASI publication: Acknowledging the uncertainty of 75 year projections, former Social Security Commissioner […]

DEAR PAUL KRUGMAN Please Read This about Social Security

by Dale Coberly DEAR PAUL KRUGMANPlease Read This about Social Security Dear Paul Krugman, There was an indication the other day that you read Angry Bear, at least sometimes. I hope you read this, because it is important, and you have a better forum than I have. I think the following facts would be game […]

Fareed Zakaria on Social Security, Fareed Hearts Pete Peterson, Disses your mom

by Dale CoberlyFareed Zakaria on Social Security Fareed Hearts Pete Peterson Disses your mom Fareed Zakaria wrote an essay for Time, The Baby Boom and Financial Doom. Dean Baker responded to Zakaria with Fareed Zakaria is unhappy that the American left chooses arithmetic over Peter Peterson. Baker makes the point that the increase in the number […]

Workers will have MORE money in their pockets AND will have paid for a longer retirement at a higher standard of living

There are a number of well thought out plans to handle the problems proposed by opponents of Social Security and also those concerned about its sustainability. To have our political and media debate confined to one item like chained-cpi should make any reasonable voter pause and wonder “Is that all? How dumb can we be?” […]