Headlines
Expelled Nazis got millions in Social Security
OSIJEK, Croatia — Former Auschwitz guard Jakob Denzinger lived the American dream. His plastics company in the Rust Belt town of Akron, Ohio, thrived. By the late 1980s, he had acquired the trappings of success: a Cadillac DeVille and a Lincoln…
Millions of Social Security recipients to get small cost-of-living bump for 3rd straight year
For the third straight year, millions of Social Security recipients, disabled veterans and federal retirees can expect historically small increases in their benefits come January. Preliminary figures suggest the annual cost-of-living adjustment, or COLA, will be less than 2 percent. That…
Majority of American Senior Citizens Would be in Poverty Without Social Security
The last time we got a report on poverty in the U.S., which was just weeks ago, senior citizens seemed to be doing pretty well. Although the “official poverty” report said 4.2 million seniors lived in poverty, the rate was…
Millennials Actually Have an Edge on Retirement
Every generation likes to think it’s nothing like the one that came before it. As for retirement, millennials might actually be right. Twenty- and 30-year-olds make up the first postwar generation with almost no shot at getting a traditional pension…
Changing public attitudes toward federalism
In this fascinating recent Cato Institute study, political scientists John Samples and Emily McClintock Ekins compile extensive survey data indicating that public opinion has shifted in favor of political decentralization over the last several decades. In a poll conducted last year,…
Obama’s Sweet Spot May Sour as Deficit Seen Wider in 2016
The good news is that the U.S. budget deficit is continuing to shrink. The bad news is that the trend isn’t likely to last. Even as the Treasury Department prepares to release figures tomorrow showing a fifth straight year of declining deficits, the…
Op-Ed The rise of unretirement
We are living longer, something to celebrate. The average life expectancy was about 62 years in 1935 when President Franklin Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act, and it’s now nearly 79 years. And, as in many things, the baby boomers…
Medicare open enrollment begins Wednesday
Mark Wallyn knows when the leaves start falling, it’s time for him to check whether his drug prices are rising. For Wallyn, 62, of Wadsworth, and thousands of other older or disabled adults, now’s the time to review options for Medicare…
Old McDonald had a farm and a hamburger joint – but no employees
The simple family farmer in the folk song “Old McDonald’s Farm” tended alone to his animals; he didn’t hire any farm workers. Much has changed since the era of Old McDonald, yet today’s farming corporations often claim they don’t “employ”…
Consumers should beware of changes in Medicare plans
SAN ANTONIO — Most seniors stay with the same Medicare plans year after year without shopping around for the best deals, experts say. The volume of health-plan marketing materials arriving in the mail each fall can be overwhelming and the…