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Oh, the wonders of higher math





Thomas Bray writes on "A No-Account System," aka Social Security:



By 2017, the Social Security system is scheduled to begin running a deficit. By 2041, the deficit could accumulate to $25 trillion. To avoid that would require either a 25% reduction in benefits or an increase in Social Security taxes to 17% from 12.4%, experts tell us. Moreover, many Americans still think the money they have paid in Social Security taxes is sitting in a trust fund on their behalf. Wrong. The money for decades was used for general fund purposes, leaving the trust fund with a mountain of nonnegotiable IOUs from the U.S. Treasury--to be repaid from higher taxes down the road. Talk about phony accounting.
He makes the point that all this talk about bad accounting practices on Wall Street is never directed at how the Fed's manage their books (or any government body, actually). To do so, of course, would cause horrific panic that would make any tumble in the stock market seem like a romp in the park.

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