Background
Kotlikoff, Laurence Jacob was born on January 30, 1951.
( In 2030, as 77 million baby boomers hobble into old age...)
In 2030, as 77 million baby boomers hobble into old age, walkers will outnumber strollers; there will be twice as many retirees as there are today but only 18 percent more workers. How will America handle this demographic overload? How will Social Security and Medicare function with fewer working taxpayers to support these programs? According to Laurence Kotlikoff and Scott Burns, if our government continues on the course it has set, we'll see skyrocketing tax rates, drastically lower retirement and health benefits, high inflation, a rapidly depreciating dollar, unemployment, and political instability. The government has lost its compass, say Kotlikoff and Burns, and the current administration is heading straight into the coming generational storm. But don't panic. To solve a problem you must first understand it. Kotlikoff and Burns take us on a guided tour of our generational imbalance, first introducing us to the baby boomers -- their long retirement years and "the protracted delay in their departure to the next world." Then there's the "fiscal child abuse" that will double the taxes paid by the next generation. There's also the "deficit delusion" of the under-reported national debt. And none of this, they say, will be solved by any of the popularly touted remedies: cutting taxes, technological progress, immigration, foreign investment, or the elimination of wasteful government spending. So how can the United States avoid this demographic/fiscal collision? Kotlikoff and Burns propose bold new policies, including meaningful reforms of Social Security, and Medicare. Their proposals are simple, straightforward, and geared to attract support from both political parties. But just in case politicians won't take the political risk to chart a new direction, Kotlikoff and Burns also offer a "life jacket" -- guidelines for individuals to protect their financial health and retirement. This paperback edition of The Coming Generational Storm has been revised and updated and includes a new foreword by the authors.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0262612089/?tag=2022091-20
(The Coming Generational Storm: What You Need to Know abou...)
The Coming Generational Storm: What You Need to Know about America's Economic...
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00MDAICP0/?tag=2022091-20
(What determines savings? The question is timely and impor...)
What determines savings? The question is timely and important. The U.S. saving rate is less than half that of Japan, Germany, and other developed countries, and the imbalance in saving rates across countries is responsible, in large part for the imbalance in international trade. This book examines a number of important determinants of wealth accumulation, including retirement bequests, and precautionary saving motives, demographics, the tax structure, social security, and insurance institutions. Using a blend of theory, empirical research and simulation methods, it reaches some surprising conclusions about what determines savings. Kotlikoff notes that most of U.S. wealth is due not to life cycle saving for retirement but rather to bequests and other intergenerational transfers. The process of passing wealth from one generation to the next may be explained, in large part, because of imperfect annuity arrangements. In addition to life span uncertainty, the author points out other types of uncertainty such as uncertainty about future medical expenditures can greatly stimulate saving. Fiscal policies, such as unfunded social security, can dramatically alter a country's wealth, although the process can take many years. Unfortunately, Kotlikoff observes, official fiscal deficits are intrinsically unreliable for measuring the government's stance of fiscal policy. He also concludes that the baby busts currently underway in the United States, Europe, and Japan are likely to improve overall economic welfare despite their detrimental impacts on social security systems Laurence J. Kotlikoff is Professor of Economics at Boston University and a Research Associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0262111373/?tag=2022091-20
(This book makes the radical argument that the government'...)
This book makes the radical argument that the government's budget deficit--the cornerstone of conventional economic policy analysis and management--is a number devoid of economic content and that its use has repeatedly led us astray.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0029175852/?tag=2022091-20
( This collection of essays, coauthored with other distin...)
This collection of essays, coauthored with other distinguished economists, offers new perspectives on saving, intergenerational economic ties, retirement planning, and the distribution of wealth. The book links life-cycle microeconomic behavior to important macroeconomic outcomes, including the roughly 50 percent postwar decline in America's rate of saving and its increasing wealth inequality. The book traces these outcomes to the government's five-decade-long policy of transferring, in the form of annuities, ever larger sums from young savers to old spenders. The book presents new theoretical and empirical analyses of altruism that rule out the possibility that private intergenerational transfers have offset those by the government.While rational life-cycle behavior can explain broad economic outcomes, the book also shows that a significant minority of households fail to make coherent life-cycle saving and insurance decisions. These mistakes are compounded by reliance on conventional financial planning tools, which the book compares with Economic Security Planner (ESPlanner), a new life-cycle financial planning software program. The application of ESPlanner to U.S. data indicates that most Americans approaching retirement age are saving at much lower rates than they should be, given potential major cuts in Social Security benefits.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0262112620/?tag=2022091-20
( The shocking statistic is that forty-seven million Amer...)
The shocking statistic is that forty-seven million Americans have no health insurance. When uninsured Americans go to the emergency room for treatment, however, they do receive care ;and a bill. Many hospitals now require uninsured patients to put their treatment on a credit card ;which can saddle a low-income household with unpayably high balances that can lead to personal bankruptcy. Why don't these people just buy health insurance? Because the cost of coverage that doesn't come through an employer is more than many low- and middle-income households make in a year. Meanwhile, rising healthcare costs for employees are driving many businesses under. As for government-supplied health care, ever higher costs and added benefits (for example, Part D, Medicare's new prescription drug coverage) make both Medicare and Medicaid impossible to sustain fiscally; benefits grow faster than the national per-capita income. It's obvious the system is broken. What can we do?In The Healthcare Fix, economist Laurence Kotlikoff proposes a simple, straightforward approach to the problem that would create one system that works for everyone ;and secure America's fiscal and economic future. Kotlikoff's proposed Medical Security System is not the "socialized medicine" so feared by Republicans and libertarians; it's a plan for universal health insurance. Because everyone would be insured, it's also a plan for universal healthcare.Participants ;including all who are currently uninsured, all Medicaid and Medicare recipients, and all with private or employer-supplied insurance ;would receive annual vouchers for health insurance, the amount of which would be based on their current medical condition. Insurance companies would willingly accept people with health problems because their vouchers would be higher. And the government could control costs by establishing the values of the vouchers so that benefit growth no longer outstrips growth of the nation's per capita income. It's a "single-payer" plan ;but a single payer for insurance. The American healthcare industry would remain competitive, innovative, strong, and private.Kotlikoff's plan is strong medicine for America's healthcare crisis, but brilliant in its simplicity. Its provisions can fit on a postcard ;and Kotlikoff provides one, ready to be copied and mailed to your representative in Congress. We're electing a new president in 2008; let's choose a new healthcare system, too ;one that works.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0262113147/?tag=2022091-20
(The Coming Generational Storm: What You Need to Know abou...)
The Coming Generational Storm: What You Need to Know about America's Economic Future [ The Coming Generational Storm: What You Need to Know about America's Economic Future by Kotlikoff, Laurence J ( Author ) Paperback Jan- 2005 ] Paperback Jan- 18- 2005
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00JHXEXNG/?tag=2022091-20
Kotlikoff, Laurence Jacob was born on January 30, 1951.
Bachelor summa cum laude, University Pennsylvania, 1973. Doctor of Philosophy in Economics, Harvard University, 1977.
Research associate National Bureau Economic Research, Cambridge, Massachusetts, since 1977, visiting scholar, 1978, 1983. Post doctoral fellow University of California at Los Angeles, 1977—1980. Assistant professor Yale University, New Haven, 1980—1981, research associate Cowles Foundation, 1980—1984, associate professor, 1981—1984.
Senior economist Council of Economic Advisors, Executive Office of the President, 1981—1982. Professor economics Boston University, since 1984, chairman Department Economics, 1986—1989, 2001—2005, William Fairfield Warren professor, since 2009. Consultant United States Department Labor, 1978—1981, International Monetary Fund, 1989, Swedish Ministry of Finance, 1989, Bank of Italy, 1990—1991, The World Bank, 1991—1995, Norwegian Ministry of Finance, 1993, Bank of Japan, 1993, Merrill Lynch, 1993—1994, 1998, 2001, Fidelity Investments, 1994, Government of Bolivia, 1993—1996, 2002, New Zealand Treasury, 1995, American Council of Life Insurance, 1995, Her Majesty Treasury, 1997—1998, Government Bulgaria, 1999, Government of Russia, 2000, Government of China, 2000, American Telephone & Telegraph Company, since 2002.
Visiting fellow Hoover Institute, 1984. Visiting professor Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1990—1991. Kirby distinguished visiting professor Texas Agricultural and Mechanical University, 1999.
Senior fellow National Center for Policy Analysis, since 2006.
(The Coming Generational Storm: What You Need to Know abou...)
(This book makes the radical argument that the government'...)
( This collection of essays, coauthored with other distin...)
( In 2030, as 77 million baby boomers hobble into old age...)
( The shocking statistic is that forty-seven million Amer...)
(The Coming Generational Storm: What You Need to Know abou...)
(What determines savings? The question is timely and impor...)
(Book by Auerbach, Alan J., Kotlikoff, Laurence J.)
(paperback)
Fellow: Econometric Society, American Academy Arts and Sciences. Member: American Economic Association (member executive committee 1997—2002, member nominating committee 2001-2002).