It’s an awful word, but I couldn’t resist using it. In any case, if you have any interest at all in the upcoming presidential election, you should read this article on what Obama’s economic priorities are. Obama has been characterized as both a conservative and a socialist, and the article attempts to explain [...]

An interesting off-shoot of the Spitzer case seems to be a revival in the debate about prostitution. In the New York Times Opinion Page today, for instance, you can find three different articles about prostitution: one written by the authors of two sex books on sex trafficking who argue that prostitutes are naturally victims [...]

This week, the governor of Oregon is limiting his food to what he would be able to purchase if he were a food stamp recipient. I think this a tremendously cool publicity stunt to help raise awareness about poverty. It would be great if everybody tried it, just to see what the poor [...]

When you invest, as any broker will tell you, you want to diversify your holdings. You want to own a variety of stocks in a variety of firms, selling a variety of products, and you also want to own bonds in a variety of different markets. You want to invest some of your money [...]

The biggest mistake we can make, with regards to immigration, is to underestimate the complexity of the American economy.
Pro-immigration forces like to say that immigrants are doing jobs that Americans refuse to do. At face value, that makes sense. Most Americans would shun the idea of becoming migrant farm workers. After all, [...]

The last few days, I’ve talked quite a bit about poverty, and what it actually looks like in the United States. I’ve tried to demonstrate that poverty is a real issue in the United States, that cannot be simply dismissed as a solved problem or an unimportant issue. So what are we going [...]

On Friday, President Bush made a Social Security proposal that would actually address the long-term health of Social Security. (This is as opposed to the privatization which would rethink how we approach Social Security, and cost us money, at least in the short-run.) For this, he should be commended.
As for the proposal itself, well, I [...]

“At the end of 2004, 48 million people were receiving benefits: 33 million retired workers and their dependents, 7 million survivors of deceased workers, and 8 million disabled workers and their dependents. During the year an estimated 157 million people had earnings covered by Social Security and paid payroll taxes. Total benefits paid in 2004 [...]

In tonight’s State of the Union address, President Bush is likely to talk a lot about Social Security privatization. He will speak of the need for people to take control of their own finances. He will tell you that by increasing flexibility, people can make decisions that will get them better returns than with our [...]

An excellent, albeit long, article on Social Security is in the New York Times Magazine this week. Read it. It gives a history of the fund, explains what the projections mean and where they come from, and the effects of privatization and other social security proposals.
Oh, and Go Vikes!