Retirement Security: All Articles and Books

Tough Tax Questions for Presidential Candidates

Ron Tang — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 00:00:00 -0500

The current crop of Presidential candidates sound a lot like they did in prior years with promises of new targeted tax breaks, loophole closures, increased taxes on the rich and new spending programs. Have the candidates not read the doom and gloom budget reports from the Government Accountability Office (GAO), Congressional Budget Office (CBO) and others?

The fiscal agenda for the next President and Congress must include some very difficult decisions that go beyond just tweaking the tax system. Below, we’ll look closer at some key fiscal issues that have tax implications. Questions are posed that could help gauge how… more

Five Myths About Sick Old Europe

Articles — Sun, 07 Oct 2007 04:22:00 -0400

In the global economy, today's winners can become tomorrow's losers in a twinkling, and vice versa. Not so long ago, American pundits and economic analysts were snidely touting U.S. economic superiority to the "sick old man" of Europe. What a difference a few months can make. Today, with the stock market jittery over Iraq, the mortgage crisis, huge budget and trade deficits, and declining growth in productivity, investors are wringing their hands about the U.S. economy. Meanwhile, analysts point to the roaring economies of China and India as the only bright spots on the global horizon.

But what about… more

The Problem with GM's UAW Deal

Articles — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 13:13:00 -0400

In 1946, Peter Drucker’s intimate, multiyear examination of General Motors (GM), Concept of the Corporation, was published. GM hated it.

Drucker’s take -- that the then-wildly-successful automaker might want to reexamine a host of long-standing policies on customer relations, dealer relations, employee relations, and more -- was viewed from inside the corporation as hypercritical. GM’s revered chairman, Alfred Sloan, was so upset about the book that he "simply treated it as if it did not exist," Drucker later recalled, "never mentioning it and never allowing it to be mentioned in his presence."

The United Auto Workers didn’t exactly embrace Drucker’s thinking either.… more

The New Economic Insecurity -- And What Can Be Done About It

Articles — Wed, 17 Jan 2007 03:56:00 -0500

Over the past generation, the economic risks American families face have increased substantially. Yet public programs have largely failed to adapt to these new and newly intensified risks, and private workplace benefits have eroded. As a result, Americans increasingly find themselves on an economic tightrope, without an adequate safety net if, as is ever more likely, they lose their footing. This tightrope both creates anxiety about the future and causes hardship when families do lose their balance. But importantly, it also threatens opportunity by making it more difficult for families to feel sufficiently secure to look confidently toward the future… more

It's Not the Economy, Stupid

Articles — Mon, 30 Oct 2006 06:50:00 -0500

In the final days of this fall’s campaign, Republicans have turned to an unexpected issue: the economy. President Bush touted the nation’s prosperity last week, insisting that "a strong economy is going to help our candidates."

And why not? The Dow is soaring. Unemployment is low. Inflation is tame. Gas prices are falling. And the overall economy has been growing steadily. If Americans practice what political scientists call "retrospective voting" (captured by President Ronald Reagan’s famous question: "Are you better off today than you were four years ago?"), then one would think that incumbent politicians should be cruising to victory.… more

The Great Risk Shift

adminn — Thu, 05 Oct 2006 01:08:00 -0400

America's leaders say the economy is strong and getting stronger. But ordinary Americans aren't buying it. They see what the rosy statistics hide: We are all struggling under the weight of terrifying economic instability. No matter how well educated and hard working we are, we know that the bottom can fall out at any moment. Meanwhile, the safety net that once protected us is fast unraveling. With retirement plans in growing jeopardy while health coverage erodes, more and more economic risk is shifting from government and business onto the fragile shoulders of the American family.

In more

The Real Issue is Risk

Articles — Wed, 13 Sep 2006 15:13:00 -0400

Having just finished a book entitled The Great Risk Shift: The Assault on American Jobs, Families, Health Care, and Retirement -- And How You Can Fight Back, I have no doubt that Stephen Rose will accuse me of offering a "message of misery." My defense, already laid out in greater length on the website of "The Democratic Strategist" in response to three of Rose’s colleagues, is that political candidates and leaders should, first and foremost, offer a message of truth. And the truth is that, after a generation in which more and more economic risks have been shifted onto the… more

The New Biopolitics

Articles — Sat, 01 Jul 2006 22:20:00 -0400

Will globalization destroy itself? Every few years, another crisis suggests it might. The Internet, satellite phones, and intercontinental air travel help terrorists cross the world in an instant. The global spread of democracy shakes authoritarian governments -- and opens the way for Islamists in Tehran and Cairo, a populist strongman in Venezuela, and nuke-happy nationalists in New Delhi. Open capital markets wreck the economies of Southeast Asia. Divisions between Muslim immigrants and the rest of Europe explode in French riots and Dutch assassinations.

These unhappy stories are familiar by now. An open, mobile, interconnected world creates new threats,… more

A Labour Shortage Can Be a Blessing, Not a Curse

Articles — Fri, 09 Jun 2006 00:00:00 -0400

Do rich nations need more poor workers? The answer is yes, according to the conventional wisdom, which finds expression in a new United Nations report on migration and development. The UN says that in developed nations 10 years from now there will be only 87 young entrants to the labour force for every 100 retirees. To forestall a labour shortage in the developed world, the report says that rich nations should turn to developing countries, which will have 342 new labour market entrants for every 100 first world retirees.

This assumes that a labour shortage in the developed world is an… more

There Goes the Rug

Articles — Sun, 15 Jan 2006 00:00:00 -0500

The announcement by IBM that it would freeze its traditional pension plan, shifting all workers into 401(k) plans by 2008, passed through the news cycle with nary a ripple. It was, after all, the latest in a string of increasingly desperate attempts by companies as diverse as GM, United and Verizon to get out from under mounting pension and healthcare burdens.

The terms of discussion are mind-numbingly complex, a thicket of acronyms and arcane benefits jargon. Yet the basic story is simple--and momentous. We are seeing the death throes of a corporate insurance system that, for decades, set the… more

California Schemin'

Articles — Sun, 08 Jan 2006 04:00:00 -0500

In each era of modern American history, California has been at the forefront. It emerged from the Depression and World War II as the nation's archetype of the suburban middle class. It marked the end of government expansion with Ronald Reagan and Proposition 13. And it ushered in the age of technology, as the birthplace of Apple, Intel and Hewlett-Packard.

Californians are still willing to push the envelope, as they demonstrated with the unprecedented recall of a governor in 2003 and the passage of an ambitious but untested stem-cell initiative the following year. But the creativity and risk-taking in the… more

Homeowner Tax Breaks are Breaking the Budget

Articles — Sun, 30 Oct 2005 00:00:00 -0400

President Bush's tax reform panel has ventured into political no man's land. It wants to limit the tax deductions for home mortgages, employer-provided health insurance and state and local taxes.

Individuals and businesses love these tax breaks. Democrats and Republicans embrace them for their own ideological reasons. The constituencies backing them are powerful. But these sacred cows are in desperate need of reform. The Treasury needs the money to close the growing budget deficit, and these tax breaks often benefit the wrong constituencies, even hurting the very economic strata they are intended to help.

The money involved… more

Insurance Policy

Articles — Mon, 04 Jul 2005 00:00:00 -0400

Nearly a year ago, voters following the presidential race heard a stirring call for social reform: "The times in which we work and live are changing dramatically. The workers of our parents' generation typically had one job, one skill, one career. ... And most of those workers were men. Today, workers change jobs, even careers, many times during their lives, and ... two-thirds of all moms also work outside the home." As a result, "many of our most fundamental systems--the tax code, health coverage, pension plans, worker training--were created for the world of yesterday, not tomorrow." These systems must now… more

Bigger and Better

Articles — Fri, 06 May 2005 00:00:00 -0400

Remember those bumper stickers during the early-1990s fight over the Clinton health plan? "National Health Care? The Compassion of the IRS! The Efficiency of the Post Office! All at Pentagon Prices!" In American policy debates, it's a fixed article of faith that the federal government is woefully bumbling and expensive in comparison with the well-oiled efficiency of the private sector. Former Congressman Dick Armey even elevated this skepticism into a pithy maxim: "The market is rational; government is dumb."

But when it comes to providing broad-based insurance -- health care, retirement pensions, disability coverage -- Armey's maxim… more

The New Insecurity

Articles — Sun, 24 Apr 2005 00:00:00 -0400

In a 1938 address on the third anniversary of the Social Security Act, Franklin Roosevelt declared, "There is still today a frontier that remains unconquered an America unclaimed. This is the great, the nationwide frontier of insecurity, of human want and fear. This is the frontier the America we have set ourselves to reclaim." And reclaim it FDR and his fellow thinkers did.

In the three decades after Roosevelt's words were spoken, the great "frontier of insecurity" shrank dramatically. A massively expanded Social Security program, the GI bill, disability insurance, Medicare and Medicaid all expressed a commitment to protect Americans… more

Early Retirement Accounts are the Way Forward

Articles — Mon, 07 Feb 2005 00:00:00 -0500

Could a reformed public pension system give citizens more control over their retirement savings, as conservatives want, without undermining security in old age, as liberals fear? Here is a proposal that does just that in the American context, although it could apply equally well to any public pension system struggling with long-term debts and an ageing population.

The idea is to allow all US workers to divert a portion of their payroll taxes into personal "early retirement accounts", which would give individuals more control over their financial destiny and the timing of their retirement. In exchange, the age… more

Managing the Cost of an Aging America

Articles — Tue, 18 Jan 2005 00:00:00 -0500

Here's a factual statement and two arguments about Social Security.

The factual statement is that under any retirement system, the amount of America's national wealth devoted to the elderly is going to increase, for the simple reason that the elderly percentage of the population is going to increase. Today, about 13 percent of the population is over 65; by 2030, that percentage is expected to rise to 20 percent. After that, the percentage will level off -- unless, of course, a breakthrough in geriatric medicine alters those forecasts.

Now to the two arguments.

First, since we're… more

Give More Credit to Prolific Parents

Articles — Sun, 09 Jan 2005 00:00:00 -0500

Ever wonder why Social Security didn't crash and burn years ago? After all, for nearly all of the program's history, each generation of retirees has taken far more money out of the system than it contributed in taxes.

The answer is simple, though largely ignored in the current debate over Social Security reform. Today's retirees may not have paid anywhere near as much in taxes as today's workers do. But most contributed something far more valuable to the system: They created, raised and educated the baby boomers.

As my mother used to say, "You try doing that." Children… more

Fixing Social Security

Articles — Mon, 01 Nov 2004 00:00:00 -0500

Social Security is a mess. With the oldest babyboomers now four years away from qualifying for benefits, the program faces a shortfall of $12.7 trillion. To close the deficit, the program would need to cut benefits by 27% by the time today's 25-year-olds retire. And yet in this silly season, neither presidential candidate is offering a viable solution: Kerry says he won't touch Social Security; Bush promises an expensive privatization plan that would leave individuals with huge market risks. But there's another way. FORTUNE has learned that a new reform idea is percolating within the Social Security Administration. Nothing's… more

Achieving a More Inclusive Ownership Society

Articles — Fri, 29 Oct 2004 00:00:00 -0400

President Bush's vision of an "ownership society" expounded on the campaign trail certainly sounds good. In his travels across the country, he touts his plan to promote Americans' ability to save, invest and own their homes.

The campaign strategists may have stumbled upon a potent rhetorical device because the power of ownership has been experienced by the more fortunate families across the country. Financial success in America today increasingly requires not just a job and growing income, but the ability to accumulate a wide range of assets.

The "ownership society" challenge appears clear enough: to maximize the number of families… more