Retirement Security Program

This study examines labor market trends related to the receipt of health and pension benefits as compensation by private sector workers over the 19-year period from 1979 to 1998. This focus on trends in benefit coverage as compensation is important, among other reasons, because employerpaid benefits continue to be the primary source of both health insurance and of private retirement savings for the vast majority of Americans under 65 years of age. As policy makers continue to consider targeted and… more

Although little noticed in mainstream investment discussions, union-friendly, alternative investment funds currently operate in nearly every asset category in the United States. This chapter profiles may of these vehicles to show how their strategies have delivered both conventional financial success and a range of collateral benefits such as job creation, pension fund health, and economic development. They do so, moreover, while delivering very competitive returns to their investors.… more

The large majority of American families with health insurance obtain their coveragethrough an employer -- whether their own, their spouse's, or a parent's. Indeed, employersponsoredinsurance (ESI), which covers nearly 63 percent of Americans, has served as thefoundation for the U.S. health insurance system for half a century.

Throughout the 1980s and early 1990s, however, the percentage of people with ESI declined. And, while ESI rates appear to have stabilized since 1993 -- largely becauseof a high-employment economy… more

Young Americans are sending a clear signal to congressional leaders eager to devise a prescription drug plan for the elderly: Such a benefit should be included in Medicare, … more

The stock market's recent volatility has probably made a lot of investors thankful for good ole U.S. government bonds. U.S. Treasury securities are perfect places … more

Tax cuts of the magnitude President Bush has proposed are gaining momentum in Washington due to two recent events. First, the Congressional Budget Office has increased… more

Democrats are already lining up in opposition to the President's plan to reform Social Security. Bush has put forth only an outline of what he proposes … more

President Clinton recently announced that the federal government could be debt-free by the year 2010 because of its stunning transformation from borrower to saver. While just eight … more

Social Security reform has long been considered an issue so dangerously charged it has been heralded as the third rail of politics -- touch it and you die.

While politicians have been hesitant to discuss reforming Social Security, an issue long considered to be the third rail of politics, things are different this presidential … more