Liberty
About that income inequality
John Merline takes note at Investor’s Business Daily of an interesting new study. [A] new study finds that we are measuring inequality all wrong, and that as a result, imposing…
Laurence Kotlikoff
American economist
Liberty
What if the American economy has hit a point of permanent stagnation?
Writing for the latest Commentary magazine (the article is not yet posted online), James Pethokoukis of the American Enterprise Institute explores the claim that “maybe the good times really are…
Liberty
Re: The “master jugglers” of the federal government
Quoting George’s link: The classical economists and many modern day political economists argue that due to the negative consequences of “juggling” we need to establish binding rules that curtail such…
Budget, Taxation & Economy
When You’d Rather Not Look in the Mirror
View in your browser. The sorry state of freedom in the United States Sometimes the truth hurts, and there’s no way to hide it. The latest Economic Freedom of the…
Budget, Taxation & Economy
Progreso del bloque del Tercer Riel en la Seguridad Social
El término “tercer riel”, en el contexto político, se refiere a una política que no puede ser tocada por temor a sufrir una electrocución. La analogía se deriva del peligroso…
Budget, Taxation & Economy
Generational welfare: No architectural coherence or structural integrity
As noted in my latest Fiscal Insight newsletter, the Reason Foundation has just published an insightful and damning report on the nature and consequences of generational welfare in the United States. The…
Budget, Taxation & Economy
Ridding Ourselves of the Third Rail Block on Social Security
View in your browser. Complacency is a lose-lose for retirees and future generations alike The term "third rail," in the context of politics, refers to a policy one cannot touch…
Budget, Taxation & Economy
Unfunded Liabilities Won’t Go Away
View in your browser. While unfunded liabilities continue to garner plenty of attention in the press, I fear a lack of understanding means this attention is failing to translate into…
Budget, Taxation & Economy
How about a 64 percent increase to all federal taxes?
View in your browser How about a 64 percent increase to all federal taxes? For years now, I’ve been publicizing that the official national debt bears little resemblance to the…
Budget, Taxation & Economy
The end of the road for the Social Security Ponzi scheme
This weekend the Washington Post and Bloomberg released a chilling graphic for Social Security payments and receipts—even with the CBO’s more-than-rosy projections. It demonstrates a shortfall as far as the…
Liberty
U.S. going broke?
That is the question Boston University economics professor Laurence Kotlikoff asks in this Forbes column. By his reckoning the federal government has unfunded liabilities of $70 trillion — “the difference…
Liberty
Same Old Deal
Niall Ferguson (author of Colossus: The Rise and Fall of the American Empire) and Laurence Kotlikoff (co-author of The Coming Generational Storm) propose a ?new New Deal? in the New…