USA Today–Rash of retirements push Social Security to brink

Social Security’s annual surplus nearly evaporated in 2009 for the first time in 25 years as the recession led hundreds of thousands of workers to retire or claim disability.

The impact of the recession is likely to hit the giant retirement system even harder this year and next. The Congressional Budget Office had projected it would operate in the red in 2010 and 2011, but a deeper economic slump could make those losses larger than anticipated.

“Things are a little bit worse than had been expected,” says Stephen Goss, chief actuary for the Social Security Administration. “Clearly, we’re going to be negative for a year or two.”

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Posted in * Culture-Watch, * Economics, Politics, Aging / the Elderly, Budget, Economy, Personal Finance, The U.S. Government

3 comments on “USA Today–Rash of retirements push Social Security to brink

  1. Sick & Tired of Nuance says:

    Huzzah! The end of the Ponzi scheme is near! Bush tried to fix this and the echo of the howls from the Left can still be heard. Gen X & Gen Y have been being robbed, since this was all predicted well in advance and since no private account mechanism was allowed by the Left, and it appears the theft is nearly at an end.

    Huzzah! Again, huzzah!

  2. Chris says:

    it’s called the butterfly effect – Barney Frank loosened mortgage standards, banks failed, small biz can’t get loans, people out of work and claiming benefits….

    next up: higher taxes to cover benefits, even more people out of work. oh well, at least health care is dead.

  3. Dilbertnomore says:

    Remember the apologists’ words about the ex~USSR. It was’t a problem with Communism. Communism just wasn’t implemented properly. We’re about to hear the same speil about the Social Security Ponzi fraud.