The S&P 500 Index dropped more than 40 percent between March 2000 and March 2003, and almost anyone who entrusted their retirement savings to the bull market of the late 1990s saw their portfolio shrink, often in dramatic fashion. Now that the stock market is regaining some of its lost value,...

In the past year, as the economy has weakened and unemployment has risen, the labor force participation rate for older workers (aged 55-64) has jumped by 2.0 percentage points - an increase unprecedented in post-war U.S. economic history. Recessions typically see very slow or even negative...

Over the past two decades, private pension coverage has shifted from defined benefit plans to 401(k) plans. This shift has many important implications for the retirement security of older Americans. One so-far-overlooked consequence is that it has changed the relative price of annuities for men...

As just reiterated in the 2005 Trustees Report, Social Security faces a 75-year deficit equal to roughly 2 percent of taxable payrolls. Closing this gap requires either a cut in benefits or an increase in taxes. One approach to cutting benefits under consideration by the administration is to...

Over the last 20 years, pension coverage has shifted from defined benefit plans, where benefits are based on years of service and final salary and generally paid as an annuity, to 401(k) plans, where individual and employer contributions and earnings on those contributions are awarded as a lump...

The fact that American households have debt is not a surprise: credit cards finance our purchases, car loans pay for our wheels, student loans help us with tuitions, and mortgages buy our homes. Yet the size of the debt can seem shocking. The aggregate burden runs to nearly $10 trillion, nearly...

State and local government pension reform has become a front-burner issue in the wake of the economic crisis, which sharply reduced funded ratios for most plans. Policymakers have responded primarily by raising employee contributions for all workers and/or reducing benefits for new workers. One...

People often ask how baby boomers compare with their parents in terms of being prepared for retirement. The easiest way to answer that question is to look at the ratio of wealth to income from the 2010 Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF), the Federal Reserve’s comprehensive triennial survey of...

This year, Social Security benefits received no Cost-of-Living Adjustment (COLA) for the first time since automatic adjustments were adopted in 1975. While current beneficiaries perceive themselves to be harmed, they were compensated by receiving a higher-than-normal 5.8-percent COLA payment in...

Municipal bond prices are tumbling and rates rising just as public borrowers face pressure to refinance deals cut during the financial crisis. At the same time, the funded status of public pension plans has declined, and states and localities will have to come up with more money to meet future...