He picks Jared Bernstein of EPI.
Bernstein, if not outright, definitely has some heterodox leanings. He is not of the textbook classical econ mold that treats free trade as some holy grail. He has written hundred of articles and publications regarding income distribution issues (equity and fairness) - focusing not just on "efficiency" gains of trade and work.
I think he's an excellent pick.
1 comment:
Here's a message i sent to him:
PLEASE HELP! It will only take 5 minutes to read and understand this simple and nearly cost-free proposal that could effectively save millions of older persons from destitution.
I tried my Senators and Congressmen, to no avail; this could have so easily and appropriately been included in the recent stimulus bill, which now as passed completely ignores the unemployed elderly.
Here is a simplified 1-minute summary:
For persons aged 56+ : allow a zero-interest loan advance on Social Security payments, up to $500 per month; after reaching 66, the received SS payments would be deducted by that same amount for the same number of months, thus repaying the loan.
Here is the full text of my original:
"
The large population group who are close to retirement age are particularly vulnerable at this point when unemployment is rampant and the value of their personal savings has been decimated by the investment market crash. With intense competition from younger workers for scarce jobs, the older ones are very unlikely to ever be able to find new employment to compensate, and many may be left destitute. As a solution, eliminate the current Social Security scheme of 'early retirement', and instead reduce the 'full retirement' age by 10 years (from 67 to 57) -- at least until the general investment market index values have recovered to their year 2000 peak adjusted for inflation (which could take another 10 years, based on prior national experiences). Persons still financially secure would opt to defer retirement until older. The Social Security Trust Funding is sufficient to cover this emergency. An optional implementation would be to allow the 'early retirer' to choose some limited number of years to 'move forward' his reception of Social Security funds, allowing time for the remnant of his personal savings investments hopefully to recover and grow, at which point he could suspend the Social Security payments. An even simpler option: For persons aged 56+ : allow a zero-interest loan advance on Social Security payments, up to $500 per month; after reaching 66, the received SS payments would be deducted by that same amount for the same number of months, thus repaying the loan.
"
Thank you
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