Mark Thoma at Economist’s View links us to the following article from William Grieder at The Nation.Looting Social Security Governing elites in Washington and Wall Street have devised a fiendishly clever “grand bargain” they want President Obama to embrace in the name of “fiscal responsibility.” The government, they argue, having spent billions on bailing out […]
After the first round, I was convinced that Microsoft’s songsmith was at best, a way to produce mash-ups for the tonally impaired. Kieran Healy has convinced me otherwise, with this piece: capitalism in action, set to music: I believe this is what we meant when we talked about “creative destruction,” back in the days when […]
A reader in comments asked why the Bears had not posted on Obama’s stimulus plan. Well, speaking for myself, that was mostly because we didn’t have a plan and still don’t. What we have is the shifting outline of a plan subject to negotiation between the Admin and the Congress, leaving no solid starting point […]
In recent days there has been a lot of gnashing of teeth among Social Security supporters at the prospect of even having Social Security on the table during next month’s economic summit. I gave a few reasons a couple days ago why we don’t need to let ‘fear itself’ rule us Obama and Social Security: […]
Or maybe I did. Given that Peter Orszag is incoming head of OMB and I am, well, me, odds are I am the one in error. But I can’t find it. Maybe someone here can help. This started as an exchange in comments on Is Obama Echoing Bush Andrew Biggs claims the following As for […]
Andrew Biggs thinks the answer is ‘Yes’ Obama Echoes Bush on Social Security and Barkley Rosser suspects he may be right Obama Drinks Social Security Kool-Aid. Each drawing his particular hope and fear from this WaPo article Obama Pledges Entitlement Reform: President-Elect Says He’ll Reshape Social Security, Medicare Programs Well I am STILL not worried […]
What are the odds that 2 standard deviations from outcome II always get you the same shape for I?1997 II.F62000 II.F62004 II.D72007 II.D7 Goldilocks and the Three Social Security BearsWhat are the odds that we get the first four results simply by variation from the median? Low Cost until 2007 meant fully funded but not […]
by Bruce Webb (first three sentences edited since original post a few minutes ago)The 2005 Report was a mild disappointment. The 2006 Report somewhat worse. 2007 showed some mild improvement but didn’t even get us back to 2005 numbers. Now the 2008 on the surface looked a lot brighter but most of that turned out […]
by Bruce Webb. Sorry for two posts in a day. But the raw data is important.OAS (Old Age Survivor) starting 2008 balance $2.023 trillionIntermediate Cost projection for year end $2.216 trillionLow Cost projection for year end $2.221 trillionPreliminary year end balance $2.203 trillion or up $180 billion for the year. DI (Disability) starting 2008 balance […]
Parts of the blogosphere are in an uproar over some Q&A the other day that some interpreted as Obama putting Social Security ‘reform’ on the table. Well for reasons outlined by Barkley Rosser (and posted below by Dan) I don’t think we have much to worry about to begin with. But even if the Obama […]