Life annuities are products sold by insurance companies to protect retirees against the risk of outliving their money. A life annuity is a once-in-a-lifetime purchase with lifelong consequences. Requiring retirees to buy life annuities with their individual accounts has advantages and...

Social Security is in excellent financial shape over the next decade; it is running surpluses while the rest of the federal government is running deficits. If the Trustees' "best estimates" for the next 75 years hold true, Social Security funds will fall short of benefit costs in about 2042. In that...

Declining home values, lost savings, and corporate pressures to cut pension costs are undermining retirement security for seniors. At the same time, job losses, pay cuts, and mortgage foreclosures are jeopardizing workers' dreams of a secure retirement. The recent stock market collapse has...

Social Security is best known as a retirement program, but it is also an important source of income security for families with children, including families of servicemembers who risk their lives in military service. When a member of the armed forces dies, his or her family may qualify for Social...

The terrorist attack of September 11, 2001, draws attention to two long-standing social insurance programs that pay cash benefits to families when a breadwinner dies. Workers' compensation pays benefits if a worker is killed at work. Social Security pays families whether or not the worker's...

In the debate over Social Security reform, most of the work on individual accounts has focused on how individuals would save and manage those accounts during their working lives. Uncharted Waters goes further and addresses the often neglected questions about how and under what circumstances...

In January 2009, 51.1 million people, or about one in every six U.S. residents, received Social Security benefits. The benefits are financed by dedicated taxes on earnings paid by workers and employers, by income taxes that upper income beneficiaries pay on part of their Social Security...

Analysts argue that former military bases can be successfully redeveloped and that local economies can recover. Community leaders, however, remain unconvinced and continue to resist base closures. This article considers whether the argument for the economic feasibility of base reuse can be made...