Today, the retirement income system — comprising Social Security and employer-sponsored pension plans — is contracting. To compensate, people need to work longer to ensure an adequate income over many years throughout retirement. A few additional years in the labor force can make a big...

The rate of national saving declined sharply in the 1980s. Some of the explanations for this puzzling performance have considered the influence of capital gains, a reduction in the need for precautionary saving, a decline in the need for retirement saving, the effect of slower income growth, and...

While the prospect for equity values naturally concerns traders and investors, it also is a concern for public policy. Because investors’ wealth depends on the value of corporate equity, the demand for consumption goods can vary with the price of stocks. The valuation of corporations’...