Much of the retirement debate has focused on shoring up Social Security, saving the traditional pension plan and getting more workers to open Individual Retirement Accounts.  Those all are important discussions, but both a new book and a McKinsey study point…

Kevin Drum, writing on Washington Monthly’s Political Animal blog, has an interesting perspective on last week’s report by the Social Security trustees. Drum drills into the report’s tables to find out how illegal immigrants (which the trustees call “other-immigrants”) affect Social Security’s…

“Leakage” threatens people’s ability to retire on their 401k savings, but, according to a new GAO study, some of the leaks apparently  are being plugged. The term refers to people’s tendency to cash out their retirement savings when they switch jobs.…

The Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis just wrapped up its two-day economic policy conference, titled “Monetary Policy under Uncertainty.” It was billed as a tribute to Bill Poole, who is retiring in March after 10 years as the bank’s president.…

You have to give Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson Jr. credit: In spite of stiff Democratic opposition to his administration’s brand of Social Security reform, he’s still trying. His Treasury Department issued the first in a series of “issue briefs” on the subject yesterday,…

Many discussions about fixing the Social Security system focus on pushing back the system’s “normal” retirement age, which ranges from 65 to 67. But half of all retirees begin collecting benefits at age 62, the earliest payout the system allows. A…

A lot of readers disagreed with my criticism of corporate average fuel economy (CAFE) standards, and most didn’t like my proposed alternative: higher gasoline taxes. Several of them said they  disliked the gasoline tax because it is regressive — that is,…

A reader named Ed, responding to my pro-immigration column today, brings up the argument that immigrants are a burden on the taxpayer. He writes:

When you combine low wages with lack of education and the inability to speak our standard…

A new  AARP poll has some interesting findings about how Americans prefer to solve the Social Security funding shortfall. In general, solutions that involve a tax increase are more popular than solutions that involve a benefit cut.

 The poll is a sampling…