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

BW on Soc Sec VIII: Calculating the Cost of Inactivity

The following is a reworked version of a piece originally put up immediately after the release of the 2006 Report in response to what seemed a very worrisome development. After a long series of years of continual improvement in Social Security long term outlook, suddenly progress stalled and actually reversed, the payroll gap went from […]

BW on Soc Sec II: The Shape of Low Cost

This figure shows in graphic form the outcomes of Intermediate Cost (II) vs High Cost (III) vs Low Cost (I) Outcome II shows the standard narrative. A Trust Fund Ratio rising to a peak in 2017 then a more or less rapid falloff to zero as the first the interest is tapped and then the […]

Bruce Webb’s Take on Social Security: I

Well Reader Dan invited me to submit some posts on Social Security and so here I am. Depending on reader interest this is the first in a series trying to get us to a deeper understanding of what Social Security actually is and where it is likely heading. And that may be a much different […]

I’m converting dollars. (In order to save the rustbelt)

With all the discussion about our plight money wise I thought it would be interesting to see just how distorted our view can become depending on what factor we choose as a comparison. Also, I find this site fun. So, just how do we compare today to the fondly remembered yesterday? I am very grateful […]

Social Security steamrolls carnival

On January 10 Moody’s, in concert with the other main bond rating firm, Standard and Poor’s, gave the United States its top AAA credit rating. The terrorist blackmail threat came in the form of a demand by Moody’s that the U.S. government “reform” Social Security and Medicare: “In the very long term, the rating could […]

Social Security again and again

Adding to the pile on with PGL, that the so called demographic bulge is a myth for social security, and perhaps Medicare and Medicaid. CBO reports clearly Rising health care costs and their consequences for federal health insurance programs constitute the nation’s central fiscal challenge.Sources of Growth in Projected Federal Spendingon Medicare and Medicaid (Percentage […]

Another way not to pay for Social Security

AARP has a report on current SSA procedures and standing. For those that think Social Security is wrong, so be it, but it is there and is promised. Texans were already lining up to get help at the Social Security office in Pasadena, a suburb of Houston, at 8 a.m., an hour before the office […]

Social Security, the new method of income redistribution

Get this. The problem is that globalization is being threatened, all that good could be lost. The solution; Social Security. In the July/August issue of Foreign Affairs (published by the Council of Foreign Relations) is an article: A New Deal for Globalization by Kenneth F. Scheve is Professor of Political Science at Yale University. Matthew […]

Bruce Webb: The Desperation of the Economic Right

Hoisted from comments, Bruce Webb writes… The Economic Right as represented by Sowell are getting desperate and as such are petulently lashing out. The key to understanding their thinking is that they don’t see inequality as something to be resisted. In their ideology cream rises to the top while the markets allocate returns on productivity […]