The predictable surprise: unraveling the U.S. retirement system

In this book, Sylvester J. Schieber explains how retirement systems work andthe implications for various generations of continuing our current course. Heexplains how the original architecture of Social Security has changed in waysthat have led to current concerns about financing and equity of the program, and describes the nuances of retirement planning in an approachable and applicable manner. Social Security is in jeopardy, private pension systems have fallen apart, and workers are trying to save for their own for retirement with thestock market in the worst shape since the Great Depression. In The Predictable Surprise, Sylvester J. Schieber shows that forewarnings of the coming retirement crisis have been apparent for decades, but we have never mustered the political will to address the problem. This book explains how we have gotten intothe retirement predicament and where we can go from here. Schieber, a renowned authority on this topic, provides a compact, insightful history of Social Security, pension plans, and other retirement options, highlighting both their original justifications and the point when things began to go wrong. He brings his discussion rightup to the present morass and concludes with suggestions as to how we can reform our retirement system. Our situation is not hopeless, Schieber concludes, if we take on some of these issues and resolve them. If we do not, we will severely jeopardize the prosperity of younger generations. INDICE: Contents List of figures List of tables Preface and acknowledgments Part 1: Foundations and Fault Lines 1. Retirement USA 2. Early Motivations behind the Pension Movement Part II: Social Security, the dream and reality 3. Development and Passage of the Social Security Act 4. Early Concerns Prove Nagging and Persistent 5. Moving to Pay-as-You-Go Financing 6. A Deal too Good toLast 7. Operations under Pay-as-You-Go Financing 8. Crisis Reactions: Conflict, Consensus and Surprise 9. Sorting out the Trust Fund Semantics and Realities 10. Policy Stalemate at the Demographic Divide 11. Understanding Social Security in Modern Times Part III: Employer-based pension provision 12. Employer Pensions Taking Root 13. Growing pains for Private Retirement Plans 14. ERISA: the Transition to a New Regulatory Regime 15. The 1980s, a Decade of Regulatory Schizophrenia 16. Good Intentions Gone Awry 17. Some Good News--or Not 18. The Unfolding of a Predictable Defined Benefit Surprise 19. And Then, a Predictable Defined Contribution Surprise 20. Public pensions: the good, the bad and the ugly Part IV: Delivering benefits and providing retirement security 21. Retirement Income Security and Workers' Residuals 22. End Game: A Gold Watch, Pat on the Back and More 23. We've Killed the Goose, Let's Gild the Eggs 24. Tax Benefits and Benefit Taxes 25. Retiree Health Benefits: Misfortune or Malpractice Part V: Truth and consequences 26. The Fellow Behind the Tree 27. Securing the Social Security Foundation 28. Securing Tax-Favored Benefits and LivingStandards 29. Remembering the Future Glossary

• ISBN: 978-0-19-989095-8
• Editorial: Oxford University
• Encuadernacion: Cartoné
• Páginas: 448
• Fecha Publicación: 08/03/2012
• Nº Volúmenes: 1
• Idioma: Inglés