Headlines
National Disability Employment Awareness Month 2014 theme announced
The U.S. Department of Labor has announced the 2014 official theme of National Disability Employment Awareness Month: “Expect. Employ. Empower.” Observed in October, NDEAM is a nationwide campaign that raises awareness about disability employment issues and honors the many diverse contributions of America’s…
Retirement: pushing the pause/restart buttons
Working past 66 may not be everyone’s idea of a dream “retirement,” but for many baby-boomers, it could represent the future. A 2013 Wells Fargo survey showed that one-third of respondents expect to work until “at least 80” for lack…
Are We On The Road To A Generational War Over Social Security?
There’s a showdown looming between the young and the old, according to demographics expert Paul Taylor, author of The Next America: Boomers, Millennials and the Looming Generational Showdown. Unlike the last time America grappled with a generation gap and the rallying cry…
The Real Retirement Crisis
America has a retirement crisis, but it’s not what some people want you to believe it is. It’s not the defined benefit pension plans that public employees pay into over a lifetime of work, which provide retirees an average of $23,400 annually…
The Health-Care Job That Really Matters
The official who matters most when it comes to controlling U.S. health-care spending has just resigned, leaving behind a program with serious fiscal problems that badly needs further reform. No, not Kathleen Sebelius — and the program isn’t the Affordable…
Will Medicare patients be left out of the bionics revolution?
The dawn of the Bionic Man is upon us. Bionic eyes help the blind to see and bionic ears allow the deaf to hear. Bionic limbs let the armless man reach and grasp and bionic legs have helped a fallen woman walk, and even dance again. Millions have…
The Richer You Are the Older You’ll Get
Money may not buy love, but it appears to buy years. Economist Barry Bosworth at the Brookings Institution crunched the numbers and found that the richer you are, the longer you’ll live. And it’s a gap that is widening, particularly among women. This data is…
An Analysis of the President’s 2015 Budget
This report by CBO presents an analysis of the proposals in the President’s budget request for fiscal year 2015, as submitted to the Congress on March 4, 2014. The analysis is based on CBO’s economic projections and estimating models (rather…
Medicare release and DATA Act signal major events in the age of data transparency
On April 10, 2014 I talked about a data revolution at a World Bank event in Washington, D.C. and listened to the thoughts of others about the subject. In his remarks, Dr. Jim Yong Kim, president of the World Bank Group, emphasized…
Social Security Chief: Women Live Longer, So They Should Save Early
The Social Security Administration distributes retirement benefits to nearly 60 million Americans. And of those beneficiaries, nearly 60 percent are women. The SSA is led by a woman, too. Carolyn Colvin was once retired herself, collecting benefits from the agency she…