Moving and Retirement
Encountering Unusual Headwinds: Fed Reserve Vice Chair Yellen Explains the Painfully Slow Recovery for America's Workers
Fed Reserve Vice Chair Janet L. Yellen: As an objective of public policy, maximum employment doesn't appear in the US Constitution, in any presidential decree, or even in the mission statement of the Labor Department... the Federal Reserve is the only agency assigned the job of pursuing maximum employment. The gulf between maximum employment and the very difficult conditions workers face today helps explain the urgency behind the Federal Reserve's ongoing efforts to strengthen the recovery. more »
Off the Table for Now: Using the Chained CPI to Reduce Social Security Payment Calculations
"The chained CPI grows more slowly than the traditional CPI does: by an average of 0.3 percentage points per year over the past decade. As a result, using that measure to index benefit programs and tax provisions would reduce federal spending (especially on Social Security and federal pensions) and increase revenues." more »
Aging America: The Cities That Are Graying The Fastest
Joel Kotkin writes: In 2000 only three US metro areas had more elderly than children under the age of 15 (Pittsburgh, Miami and Tampa-St. Petersburg, FL). The 2010 Census showed we now have 10, with the addition of Buffalo, Boston, Cleveland, Hartford, Providence, Rochester and San Francisco to the first three. The elderly population is overtaking the younger population not only in Florida’s retirement havens, but in a number of Rust Belt and Northeastern cities. more »
Have You Received the Letter? Medicare Trying To Nudge Seniors Out Of Plans With Low Ratings
Susan Jaffe writes: Medicare officials are trying a novel approach during this open enrollment season to gently nudge a half million beneficiaries out of 26 private drug and medical plans that have performed poorly over the past three years. The effort marks the first time that Medicare officials have tried to steer beneficiaries away from some private drug and medical plans. more »