Brad DeLong explains why Donald Luskin's NRO article attacking Robert Shiller is unfounded.
I love Robert Shiller because, unlike most pundits, he's a realist, and he has data to back up his realistic assumptions. But because most people are unrelenting optimists (see my previous post about optimism), a realist appears to be a pessimist.
People would rather believe that the stock market will forever have unrealisticly high returns, creating free money for America's retirees if only we let the Republicans change the law so that people automatically have their money invested in the stock market.
Only tangentially related to the Social Security issue, Robert Shiller has also documented how there is currently a bubble in real-estate prices, a fact which will have painful repurcussions for the economy when the bubble bursts.
Okay, damn it, I'll start: I like realists better than optimists or pessimists, too. In fact, I've always been a realist who is accused of being a pessimist by the @#$$%! optimists.
I'm sorry that I am not more familiar with Mr. Shiller's work. I have always heard that betting on the stock market to provide retirement is like gambling. The stock market has it's place, but Social Security is supposed to provide a solid foundation to prevent abject poverty; it's not supposed to be a lottery ticket. Of course, that's what they want - a nation of scratch-ticket buyin', Springer-watchin' red-staters to be used and abused at the whims of the pampered, spoon-fed neocon elite and the BFEE. 8^)
Posted by: SheaNC | March 28, 2005 at 11:38 PM
You still alive?
Posted by: MNPundit | May 16, 2005 at 01:40 AM
Social Security was originally sold as a safety net against poverty, but it's obviously not that now, if it ever was
I'd be all for a real safety net - which would involve, for starters, means-testing (aka "slashing benefits").
No one is proposing mandatory stock market investments. Under Bush's plan, if you want to keep your money in the system as is, go ahead. You'll take a big loss, but demographic facts mean you're going to take a big loss anyway.
Google "Ponzi scheme" and all will be revealed.
Posted by: Knemon | June 01, 2005 at 11:24 PM
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http://www.vistaprint.com/vp/gateway.aspx?S=4848761673
Posted by: rachel jeffries | December 14, 2005 at 03:42 PM
I think it is safe to say that the bubble has ofically burst. I don't know what do you think???
Posted by: Auto glass Coolidge arizona | April 13, 2009 at 03:13 PM