Social Security

Breathes there a man with brain so dead Who never to himself hath said, “Social Security looks like a Ponzi Scheme?” - With apologies to Sir Walter Scott Today we look at Social Security. In the US, Texas Governor Perry touched the third rail of Social Security and called it a Ponzi scheme, which...

By Robert A. Green, CPA and founder and CEO of Green & Company Inc. (GreenTraderTax.com and GreenTraderFunds.com) Chinese media interviewed me about this blog: Xinmin Weekly article in Chinese. I met a nice journalist Ms. Leyun (Lorrin) Shao from China in Finland last year. She reads my blog...

AEI economist Andrew Biggs (formerly principal deputy commissioner of Social Security) writes in the American.com:  "What makes the Social Security/Ponzi references so common is the similarity in the way they are financed. In both cases, early participants receive payments, not from interest on...

Is the Social Security system a Ponzi scheme? Texas Governor Rick Perry says Yes.  Cato Institute's Michael Tanner says Perry was being too kind.  Boston Globe columnist Jeff Jacoby says that's not the point. The debate will continue, but the facts in the graph above are crystal clear: the number...

  This article on Bloomberg addresses a huge, and largely underreported issue: the aging Baby Boomers.   This post WWII cohort has made some recent headlines in regard to entitlement reform.  The real impact, however, could be far wider than just the future of both Social Security and Medicare....

It doesn't take a genius to see that we are currently in a serious economic quagmire. With the substantial recent hit to the stock market and dismal unemployment numbers, it's enough to make one seek to escape from the real world. Unfortunately, as much as nostalgia or fantasizing about some...

What happens in the U.S. if Congress doesn't reach a budget resolution by midnight? At midnight, if Congress hasn't reached a compromise, the federal government will shut down starting Saturday, April 9. Congress will stay in session seeking to reach an agreement. Because most government employees...

House Republicans released their plans Tuesday morning to reduce the federal deficit by $5 trillion over the next decade. Republican Paul Ryan, House Budget Committee Representative, unveiled the plan not as a proposal for legislation, but rather as a guideline for future action in Congress and as...

In the recent Associated Press-LifeGoesStrong.com poll of 1,160 baby boomers, 11% of participants stated they are strongly convinced that they can live comfortably upon retirement. Fifty five percent are somewhat or very certain that they can live comfortably while 44% have little or no faith that...