ECONOMIC PERSPECTIVES

In the March 21, 2010 article " $1 Million Doesn't Cut It for Retirement, Joe Mont explains that "A majority of experts now say $1 million is not nearly enough for a truly secure retirement." Conventional wisdom says you need to save $1 million for retirement. That target may be easy to remember, but it falls short of the true cost of what's required for post-career comfort. Longer life spans, the threat of inflation and the uncertain future of Social Security benefits make this long-touted savings advice inadequate for most, advisers say. Scottrade recently polled 226 registered investment advisers on the topic and found that 71% don't believe $1 million is enough for the average American family. Most said families need to save double, or more than triple, the amount. "Younger generations, especially, need to set their retirement goals higher than other generations and start saving as early as possible," says Craig Hogan, Scottrade's director

John Stewart's parody of Glenn Beck illustrates the folly of jumping to wild conclusions on the basis of unsound reasoning. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/19/jon-stewart-glenn-beck-parody_n_505329.html

In the March 11, 2010 U.S. News & World Report article " What Happens If Greece Really Defaults? ," Matthew Bandyk reports: Earlier this week, Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou traveled to the United States to promote a message: We're in this together. The debt crisis that has threatened the Greek economy and the stability of the European Union's monetary policies "very much involves America's interests," Papandreou stated in a speech at the Brookings Institution in Washington. The prime minister--who was born in St. Paul, Minn.--even connected the current crisis to the Great Depression as well as the Great Recession. "If the European crisis metastasizes, it could create a new global financial crisis with implications as grave as the U.S.-originated crisis two years ago," he said. But the path from a Greek crisis to a U.S. crisis is not a direct one. The European Union is hoping it can contain Greece's debt crisis before the probl

In the March 14, 2010 article " Social Security to start cashing Uncle Sam's IOUs ," Associated Press writer Stephen Ohlemacher reports the Social Security system will pay out more in benefits than it collects in revenues this year. As baby-boomers increasingly shift from working and paying into the system to retiring and collecting benefits, this problem will exacerbate: PARKERSBURG, W.Va. – The retirement nest egg of an entire generation is stashed away in this small town along the Ohio River: $2.5 trillion in IOUs from the federal government, payable to the Social Security Administration. It's time to start cashing them in. For more than two decades, Social Security collected more money in payroll taxes than it paid out in benefits — billions more each year. Not anymore. This year, for the first time since the 1980s, when Congress last overhauled Social Security, the retirement program is projected to pay out more in benefits than it collects in taxes — nearly $29

In the March 12, 2010 article " Young war veterans returning home to unemployment ," Associated Press writer Kimberly Hefling reports: WASHINGTON – The unemployment rate last year for young Iraq and Afghanistan veterans hit 21.1 percent, the Labor Department said Friday, reflecting a tough obstacle combat veterans face as they make the transition home from war. The number was well above the 16.6 percent jobless rate for non-veterans of the same ages, 18 to 24. As of last year, 1.9 million veterans had deployed for the wars since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Some have struggled with mental health problems, addictions, and homelessness as they return home. Difficulty finding work can make the adjustment that much harder. The just-released rate for young veterans was significantly higher than the unemployment rate of young veterans in that age group of 14.1 percent in 2008. Many of the unemployed are members of the Guard and Reserves who have deployed multiple times, s

In the March 11, 2010 Christian Science Monitor article " Why Rush Limbaugh would go to Costa Rica if Obama's healthcare plan passes ," Chrissie Long reports: San José, Costa Rica – Conservative talk-show host Rush Limbaugh said this week he’d go to Costa Rica for medical treatment if Congress passes proposed reforms to the US healthcare system. That might sound like an unusual choice, since this is a country with one of the longest standing socialized healthcare systems on the planet. Everyone here (including resident foreigners), are required to pay into the government-run health system, whether they use it or not. But Limbaugh’s choice may also serve to advertise what many Americans traveling here for medical treatment already know: Costa Rica is a fabulous place for medical tourism. Life expectancy in this little Central American country surpasses that of the United States and at one point, back in the early 2000s when the World Health Organization rated countries’ g

In the March 8, 2010 article " Tax soda, pizza to cut obesity, researchers say ," Julie Steenhuysen reports that excise taxes on pizza and soda might help reduce obesity. CHICAGO (Reuters) – U.S. researchers estimate that an 18 percent tax on pizza and soda can push down U.S. adults' calorie intake enough to lower their average weight by 5 pounds (2 kg) per year. The researchers, writing in the journal Archives of Internal Medicine on Monday, suggested taxing could be used as a weapon in the fight against obesity, which costs the United States an estimated $147 billion a year in health costs. "While such policies will not solve the obesity epidemic in its entirety and may face considerable opposition from food manufacturers and sellers, they could prove an important strategy to address overconsumption, help reduce energy intake and potentially aid in weight loss and reduced rates of diabetes among U.S. adults," wrote the team led by Kiyah Duffey of the Universi

In the March 15, 2010 TIME magazine article " Is There Too Much Worry About the Debt? ," Zachary Karabell argues that the U.S. should not lose sight of the things that increase productivity and lead to real economic growth (which in turn, increase tax revenues): investment in physical capital (infrastructure, factories and machines), human capital (education and skills training), and technology.

Mort Zuckerman: Political Leaders Must Deal With the National Debt or Future Generations Will Pay

Ronald Reagan speaks out against Socialized Medicine , circa 1961. Audio file. For more information, visit The Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation & Library.

Republican Party's 2010 fundraising strategy: fear

In the March 1, 2010 Salon editiorial " The ultimate deficit hawk says spend more -- on jobs! ," Joe Conason says "The Republican noise machine, from Beck to McCain, loves David Walker. But now he is rejecting their rigid ideology." Whenever conservative lobbyists, tea-party fanatics and Republican politicians start to scream about government spending, which is almost every day now, the authority they cite most confidently is David M. Walker. The former comptroller general and GAO chief has bipartisan credentials and the backing of billionaire Pete Peterson, who has put his personal fortune behind Walker’s warnings about an America doomed by debt and deficits. From Glenn Beck and his followers to John McCain, Walker is the favorite expert of the harshest critics of the Obama administration’s stimulus spending (and any other federal effort to increase employment). During his presidential campaign, McCain promised that if elected, he would hire Walker to help balanc

In the March 1, 2010 CNNMoney article " America's hidden debt problem ," Jeanne Sahadi says"America's total debt load is on pace to top $13 trillion this year, and $22 trillion by 2020 -- and that's just the debt we're counting." What's not being counted: potential debt bombs that don't get factored into most budget analysis. When anyone talks about U.S. debt, they typically refer to two numbers. The first is the debt held by the public. That's money owed to those who have bought U.S. Treasurys, most notably big bond mutual funds and foreign governments. Debt held by the public today is roughly $8 trillion and rising. The second number is the money the federal government owes to government trust funds, such as those for Medicare and Social Security. The government has used revenue collected for those programs to cover other outlays. Currently, the debt to the trust funds is approaching $5 trillion. The two combined is the total gross deb

It is not the FREEDOM of markets that is beneficial to an economy, but rather the existence of sufficient COMPETITION to ensure that market outcomes are a reasonable balance of efficiency and fairness. Markets sometimes need to be regulated to prevent the concentration of market power. Much of the recent struggles in financial markets could have been prevented by not allowing banks and similar institutions to become “too big to fail.” Ideological devotion to free markets, such as seems to be currently popular in the guise of patriotism, illustrates a fundamental lack of understanding of most great economic thinkers since the 18th century.