>> . . . >> very carefully. Nothing about domestic debt, current account deficits, >> fiscal inflexibility . . . > >The apparent budget surpluses certainly reflect >some fiscal flexibility. It's only the political >rules and shibboleths that instill inflexibility. > >> . . . >> Rather ambiguous on the degree to which social security would be >> invested on Wall St, I thought. Did anyone make more sense out of that >bit? . . . > >The WH would "transfer" 62 percent of the surplus >into the Trust fund, then use "less than one-quarter" >of the transferred amount for the stock purchases. > >This transfer is pretty comical. It goes like this: Much simpler is simply to print up and transfer $4 trillion of new bonds to the "Trust Fund." Then the Trust Fund is in actuarial balace, and we can all go home. Congress could do that on Thursday, Clinton could sign it on Friday, and on Saturday they could have a "we saved Social Security" party. Brad DeLong
