He warns:
The figure, taken from the annual report of the Social Security actuaries released in May 2011, tells the story. Up until 2011, the “non-interest income” for the Social Security trust fund–which basically means payroll taxes–exceeded the costs of the system. Under the rules of federal budget accounting, Social Security was providing extra funds that […]
Archive for the 'SocialSecurity' Category
Jun8th2011
Jun1st2011
Which is better? Andrew Samwick, professor of economics at Dartmouth College answers it this way:
My colleague Jon Skinner and I made that comparison in an article in the American Economic Review. The result was that the projected distributions of retirement income were surprisingly similar under the old-style DB plans that were dominant in the 1980s and the 401(k) plans […]
Sep7th2010
Arnold Kling explains why the term should be dropped:
Klein’s thinking is that people do not want to work longer, so raising the Social Security “retirement age” is a bad idea. His conclusion does not follow from his premise. To avoid this sort of error, we need to stop using the […]
Mar29th2010
“Ever since the early eighties, when the Greenspan commission kicked the can down the road with a combination of tax increases and later retirement ages, analysts have been awaiting the day when the system would finally go into deficit. That date has been sliding around between 2016 and 2020 for some […]
Sep14th2009
A Bad Track Record
Published by in Economics, HealthCare, ModernPolitics and SocialSecurity. 6 CommentsOct26th2006
Quote Of The Day
Published by in (modern day) Liberalism, Capitalism, Economics, Education, General, HealthCare, ModernPolitics, Poverty, SocialSecurity and Welfare. 0 Comments“I believe that in reality what has helped the less fortunate is economic growth. Today’s elderly are affluent not because of Social Security, but because of all of the wealth created by private sector innovation over their lifetimes. Government involvement in health care and education is an impediment to progress in those fields. Job training […]
Jul27th2006
Quote Of The Day
Published by in Economics, General, HealthCare, Poverty, SocialSecurity and Taxes. 0 Comments“If I were in charge of the budget, we would massively reform entitlements, transforming Social Security into a system of forced savings combined with a means-tested fallback for those too poor to save, or whose investments tanked at the wrong time. We would kill the whole Medicare/Medicaid debacle, along with the tax deduction for corporate-provided […]
Jul3rd2006
Bipartisan Government Waste
Published by in Economics, Education, General, SocialSecurity, Taxes and University. 4 CommentsHere is a good list of spending cuts that both Republicans and Democrats can support:
Agricultural Subsidies: Everyone’s favorite whipping boy, and for good reason. These subsidies are a handout to rich farmers, and they raise food prices for everyone. $20 billion.
Social Security for the Well-Off: Social Security is not means-tested; people with substantial retirement income […]
Jun26th2006
“There are some issues where the views I hold are outside the mainstream. However, among economists, both on the left and the right, essentially everyone who looks at entitlement spending agrees that it would be helpful and appropriate to raise the age of government dependency. Yet we are told that this simple, common-sense solution is […]
Feb20th2006
Economics Debate: Stitching a New Safety Net
Published by in Debates, Economics, General, HealthCare and SocialSecurity. 0 CommentsThe Wall Street Journal has posted another economics debate. This time it is between Mark Thoma of EconomistsView blog and Andrew Samwick of Vox Baby blog, on the topic of Social Security, Medicare, and Health Care Reforms (No subscription needed for 30 15 days).
The debate can be found here.
My favorite parts:
We do several things […]
Jan14th2006
An Economists New Years Resolutions
Published by in Economics, FreeTrade, General and SocialSecurity. 4 CommentsGregory Mankiw, a professor at Harvard University and former chairman of President Bush’s Council of Economic Advisers gives us his New Years Resolutions:
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — Now is a time when most of us sit back and reflect on the past year and on how to do better in the year ahead. Since I know, however, […]
Dec23rd2005
Announcing The “Nonpartisan Social Security Reform Plan”
Published by in Economics, General and SocialSecurity. 3 CommentsAndrew Samwick, professor of economics at Dartmouth College, announces the creation of the “Nonpartisan Social Security Reform Plan”:
Along with Jeff Liebman of Harvard University and Maya MacGuineas of the New America Foundation, I am pleased to announce the “Nonpartisan Social Security Reform Plan.” Jeff was a Special Assistant to President Clinton’s National Economic Council, […]
Jul29th2005
Things To Keep In Mind When Discussing Social Security
Published by in Economics, General and SocialSecurity. 3 CommentsWill Wilkinson writes:
* The Social Security tax is regressive.
* The overall benefit structure accomplishes, on net, either no downward income redistribution, or a small amount of upward redistribution. (I.e., it is either close to a wash, or regressive, redistribution-wise.)
*The system is structured to disadvantage current workers over current retirees, and is thus invalid as a […]
Jul3rd2005
George P. Bush On Social Security
Published by in Economics, General, Hispanics (Minority Issues) and SocialSecurity. 4 CommentsThe President’s nephew, George P. Bush makes a lot of sense in his article in the DallasNews on social security:
George P. Bush: Lawmakers can’t ignore Social Security problems
A generation’s future hangs in the balance
If you’re in your 20s or 30s, why should you care about retirement when it’s more than three decades away? Because […]
