Saturday, September 17, 2005

Solvency: Gone With the Wind
There are a lot of maps out there. Too many of them are treasure maps.

You don’t need a treasure map. You need an escape route.

You can’t read all the maps. You have to decide which maps make sense and which maps you can understand. Then you have to decide to take action in terms of what the maps seem to indicate.

Some maps are clear. The map governing the fiscal reality of Social Security/Medicare is crystal clear. The financial well will start running dry in 2011, when the post-World War II baby boomers start retiring by the millions. That is six years away. Social Security will still produce a surplus until 2017, but Medicare won’t. The two programs are linked at the hip politically.

The Federal government’s red ink is already flowing. It will get steadily worse six years from now. Then it will become a flood.

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