Economics of Retirement
Martin Feldstein is Right and Wrong About Social Security Supplements
Are we really fighting over Social Security privatization and reductions again!? A recent Wall Street Journal article by former Reagan advisor and Harvard professor Martin Feldstein has ginned up the debate.
BUT, sound the horns, I agree with conservative economist Martin Feldstein, but only on his main point. Cutting and privatizing Social Security is a bad idea, but we need to supplement Social Security. I call universal accounts that have guaranteed returns.
Pension Myopia in the New York Times Magazine
As virtually all states face budget crises, issues of pensions have risen to the forefront. Although there is much that can be done by states to improve and expand pensions for public and private sector workers, current battles over state worker rights, budget crises, and pensions are muddying the issues and facts.
The Feb.28th New York Times Magazine has helpful information scattered throughout an admiring profile of New Jersey Governor Chris Christie. Christie has won a lot of national attention for his attacks on New Jersey's public unions, especially teachers, but the Times article brushes past several key issues, contributing to the one-sided and partial nature of the national debate on public pensions.
Ireland and 401(K)s
I just got back from Ireland, discussing my book “When I’m Sixty-Four: The Plot Against Pensions and the Plan to Save Them”. In Ireland, pension security and the financial crisis is on everyone’s mind.
I spoke twice—first at the business school at Trinity College, at an event sponsored by their superb Pension Policy Research Group Trinity College Business School and Trinity College Pension Policy Research Group funded by the American based Atlantic Philanthropies. The second venue was the Kilkenny Arts Festival (fellow economists, eat your heart out – my badge said “Kilkenny Artist!). Fintan O’Toole of the Irish Times, whose latest book is Ship Of Fools, How Stupidity And Corruption Sank The Celtic Tiger, 2009, moderated the panel. The audience included union officials, artists, and advocates, including a representative of the wonderfully named group “Older and Bolder.”
