New Report from Pew Research- Interesting graphs, misleading rhetoric

Check out this latest report from Pew-

The demographic data is nicely displayed, and in a clear, thought provoking way. However, the next to last segment entitled: "Saving the Safety Net" reads like it was written by Maya McGuiness and the Fix the Debt Hacks. It is pure 100% bullshit, disguised in an otherwise useful media piece:

"But the status quo is unsustainable. Some 10,000 Baby Boomers will be going on Social Security and Medicare every single day between now and 2030. By the time everyone in this big pig-in-the-python generation is drawing benefits, we’ll have just two workers per beneficiary – down from three-to-one now, five-to-one in 1960 and more than forty-to-one in 1945, shortly after Social Security first started supporting beneficiaries. 

The math of the 20th century simply won’t work in the 21st. Today's young are paying taxes to support a level of benefits for today's old that they have no realistic chance of receiving when they become old. And they know it – just 6% of Millennials say they expect to receive full benefits from Social Security when they retire. Fully half believe they’ll get nothing."

Its a good thing that I'm bad at math, since the author of this piece didnt bother to do any- apparently rhetorical flourishes will suffice. And hey, who knew all that 20th century math expired on December 31, 1999?

The only thing wrong with the financing of federal programs is the public's perceptions of them, and poorly researched pieces like this one are part and parcel of this problem. I can however concur with the finding the just 6% of millennials think that we will get full benefits when we retire. The ceaseless and well funded propagandizing on this issue has been successful in making my generation very cynical. This hopelessness runs deep in our perceptions of government and economics, thanks in part to the almost fetishized doom-and gloom scenarios from "serious experts." MMT in contrast, provides sunlight and fresh air to US policy discussions, and in my view is the best antidote to the "learned helplessness" that permeates my generation.

When they try to scare you with the national debt, give them the national assets

I'm sure you've heard of the debt clock, right? That is that big electronic billboard ticking away at light speed in Times Square that shows the size of the national debt, which is currently at $17.3 trillion, and debt per citizen at $54,000.

Well, what they don't show you are the national assets, which are at least five times more. The national assets are $108 trillion and assets per citizen are at $341,000.

Walk into any bank and ask them for a loan. Then say, "Here are my debts." What do you think the banker is going to ask you? What are your assets!

However, in our national dialogue about debt our assets are never even mentioned. And by the way, our assets are WAAAAAY more than $108 trillion. If you count land value, natural resources, intellectual assets, etc, it's probably closer to a quadrillion dollars.

Congressman Paul Ryan should apologize to the American people!

This was posted on Warren Mosler's site. Warren says that Paul Ryan should apologize to the American people for his misleading comments on the debt.

Dear Congressman Ryan, Your response to the President Obama’s State of the Union address included something we’ve all heard a lot of ever since. You warned along the lines that that the US could become the next Greece, and be faced with some kind of a sudden financial crisis, where the world would no longer lend to us, interest rates would skyrocket, and the US, unable to spend, would be down on its knees before the IMF begging for the needed funding. And no one with any kind of national public forum took issue with you, including the President and the Democrats in Congress, who for all appearances quietly agreed and acted accordingly. Well, today, based on the near universal response to the S&P downgrade, everyone now knows, or should know, there is no such thing as the US becoming the next Greece. The overwhelming response to the S&P downgrade by everyone from Buffet to Greenspan, and most every financial and academic economist in the world was along the lines of: The US is the issuer of the dollar. It can print dollars. So it can always make timely payments without limit. THERE IS NO SOLVENCY ISSUE FOR THE US. There is no such thing as the US running out of dollars to spend. There is no such thing as the US being dependent on taxing or borrowing to get dollars to spend. Greece is very different. Greece, Ireland, Italy, and all the euro member nations, corporations, and households can’t print euro, any more than the US states, corporations, and households can print dollars. And so they are all indeed dependent on revenues from somewhere to be able to spend. So, Congressman Ryan, please apologize NOW for being so wrong and so misleading. There is no solvency risk for the US. The Fed is price setter for the interest rates for the US government and the banking system, not the market, just like the European Central Bank sets the interest rates for its banking system and its own debt. Congressman Ryan, your reasons for deficit reduction have vaporized. You see, the risk of overspending is inflation, not solvency. So if you want to argue for deficit reduction, apologize NOW, regroup, and come back with your next round of fear mongering about how the deficit can be inflationary, or something like that, and see how that flies.