Retirement Security Program

Should death be taxed? Congressional supporters claim that this is the issue that was at the core of the failed legislation to repeal estate and gift taxes. Certainly this … more

The latest in gimmicky government policies, the much-touted but meaningless "lock box" has taken the US by storm. The president, prominent Republican members of Congress and … more

Among the many realities obscured during the 2000 presidential campaign is the fact that reforming Social Security is only one part of a much larger and more serious challenge. However we make the 65-year-old Social Security program solvent for the 21st century, the nation's real retirement security crisis is that during the best of times a majority of American workers have no retirement savings other than Social Security.

Any good financial planner tells their affluent clients real security relies on… more

This week Vice President Al Gore detailed an approach to retirement saving policy that is radically different from the Social Security privatization plan embraced by his rival, presumptive GOP presidential candidate, Gov. George W. Bush. Although Bush supporters immediately accused Gore of a desperate "me-too" embrace of private accounts, in reality it is Republicans who should be worried that this debate will alert ordinary voters to the stark differences between the two candidates' plans. Like Bush, Gore proposed that every American… more

Pity the rich. Imagine slaving away your whole life and then, after piling up $10 billion or $20 billion, or even $10 million or $20 million, you die and a bunch of government "grave robbers" come along and impose the "immoral" estate tax on your otherwise lucky heirs. This is the world according to Rep. Dick Armey, the GOP House majority leader and cosponsor of the somewhat morbidly titled "Death Tax Elimination Act."

Other than death and taxes, nothing is more… more

As presidential candidates George W. Bush and Al Gore square off over the future of Social Security, they ignore a larger problem. A majority of Americans are not saving nearly enough to maintain their living standards in retirement. This saving gap is widening, in part, because U.S. companies are radically retooling their private pension plans -- covering fewer workers, making pensions less generous and in many cases cutting the benefits promised to older workers.

It is important to remember that Social… more

The annual deadline for filing income tax returns came and went last week with surprisingly little of the usual fanfare and political grandstanding. Lest one be tempted to think that the quiet surrounding Tax Day was mostly due to the good economic times, a more convincing explanation may lie in the widespread ignorance that the largest levy that three-quarters of American families now pay is not the income tax, but the regressive payroll tax.

If Texas Gov. George W. Bush and… more

Should state and local sales taxes apply equally to e-commerce? The debate over whether the Internet should remain a tax-free zone is creating divisions among governors of both parties, but especially between moderate Republican governors and conservative anti-tax activists.

The Advisory Commission on Electronic Commerce, appointed by Congress to recommend a solution by next month, is not even close to a consensus on how, or even whether, to create a national system to collect sales taxes on items purchased over… more

This week American prosperity entered uncharted territory: a record 107th month of non-stop economic growth. It is widely assumed the Federal Reserve Board raised interest rates this week to slow things down a bit. The so-called "wealth effect," the reasoning goes, threatens to reawaken inflation, as average Americans tap their ballooning stock profits to binge on big-ticket consumer goods.

Boom time?

The implication of this "long boom" is that the New Economy has delivered widely shared prosperity. In its current issue,… more

This week's bipartisan White House Conference on Social Security produced a consensus by default on one big issue: If President Clinton and Congress reach agreement next year, hundreds of billions of payroll-tax dollars will flow into private equity markets instead of Treasury bonds for the first time in history.

While any grand compromise could easily fall victim to partisan posturing or interest-group vetoes, investing Social Security reserves in the stock market has emerged as the political path of least resistance… more