The Coming Generational Storm: What You Need To Know About America's Economic Future

Laurence J. Kotlikoff

MIT Press, Jan 1, 2005 - Business & Economics - 276 pages

This paperback edition of The Coming Generational Storm has been revised and updated and includes a new foreword by the authors. In 2030, as 77 million baby boomers hobble into old age, walkers will outnumber strollers; there will be twice as many retirees as there are today but only 18 percent more workers. How will Social Security and Medicare function with fewer working taxpayers to support these programs? According to Laurence Kotlikoff and Scott Burns, if our government continues on the course it has set, we'll see skyrocketing tax rates, drastically lower retirement and health benefits, high inflation, a rapidly depreciating dollar, unemployment, and political instability. The government has lost its compass, say Kotlikoff and Burns, and the Bush administration's spending and tax policies have charted a course straight into the coming generational storm.Kotlikoff and Burns take us on a guided tour of our generational imbalance: There's the "fiscal child abuse" that will double the taxes paid by the next generation. There's also the "deficit delusion" of the under-reported national debt. And none of this, they say, will be solved by any of the popularly touted remedies: cutting taxes, technological progress, immigration, foreign investment, or the elimination of wasteful government spending. Kotlikoff and Burns propose bold new policies, including meaningful reforms of Social Security and Medicare, that are simple, straightforward, and geared to attract support from both political parties.

What people are saying

Review: The Coming Generational Storm: What You Need to Know about America's Economic Future

User Review  - Robert Wechsler - Goodreads

The tone of the book is too pop-annoying and the arguments overblown, but the information is valuable. It certainly showed how irresponsible our elected federal officials are in failing to show the ...

Review: The Coming Generational Storm: What You Need to Know about America's Economic Future

User Review  - Alice - Goodreads

Their book that predates The Clash of Generations.

Contents

• From Strollers to Walkers: 1
• Truth Is Worse Than Fiction: 41
• Driving in LA with a Map of New York: 73
• Popular Tonics Snake Oils and Other Easy Fixes: 87
• Going Critical: 121
• Changing Course: 143
• Grab Your Life Jacket: 173
• Securing Your Future: 193
• Epilogue: 243
• Notes: 249
• Index: 263

About the author

Dallas Morning News personal finance columnist Scott Burns is nationally syndicated by Universal Press. His column can be read on the Web at www.scottburns.com and on MSN's MoneyCentral, one of the three largest financial Web sites.

Bibliographic information

• Title: The Coming Generational Storm: What You Need To Know About America's Economic Future
• Author: Laurence J. Kotlikoff
• Editor: Scott Burns
• Edition: illustrated, reprint
• Publisher: MIT Press, 2005
• ISBN: 0262612089, 9780262612081
• Length: 276 pages
• Subjects: Business & Economics / Economics / General; Business & Economics / Economics / Theory; Business & Economics / Personal Finance / General; Business & Economics / Personal Finance / Retirement Planning; Political Science / Public Policy / Social Security