Report August 1999

A new Public Policy Brief argues that the prediction of a coming crisis in Social Security is based on overly pessimistic assumptions about revenues and costs. Even if the prediction were to come to pass, the resulting financial shortfall could be resolved by relatively minor adjustments in the tax system at that time; cutting benefits now, the authors say, simply lowers living standards prematurely without in any way reducing burdens on future workers.

Contents: Levy Institute Workshop on Earnings Inequality, Technology, and Institutions * Workshop: Association for Evolutionary Economics/Levy Institute Summer School on Institutional Economics * Symposium on Behavioral Economics and Policy * Breaux Plan Slashes Social Security Unnecessarily * New Working Paper topics include: Can Social Security Be Saved? * Functional Finance and Full Employment * Keynesian Alternatives to the Independent European Central Bank * New Policy Notes: The Minimum Wage Can Be Raised * Capital Income Taxes and Economic Performance * Breaux Plan Slashes Social Security Benefits Unnecessarily * New Public Policy Brief: Down and Out in the United States