The Coming Generational Storm: What You Need to Know about America's Economic Future by Laurence J. Kotlikoff, Scott Burns

From the Publisher

One of Library Journal's Best Business Books of 2004, A Forbes.com Top Ten Business Book for 2004, One of Barron’s 25 Best Books of 2004, Winner in the category of Economics in the 2004 Professional/Scholarly Publishing Annual Awards Competition presented by the Association of American Publishers, Inc. and CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title for 2004

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 eliminationof 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.

Library Journal

Kotlikoff (economics, Boston Univ.) and personal finance writer Burns paint a bleak picture of the future U.S. economy. They claim that a "generational storm" will occur when baby boomers start to retire, leaving fewer people in the workforce to support the massive programs on which the boomers will be depending. Focusing on three programs that they feel are ailing-Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid-the authors argue that administrations past and present have misled the public on the health of the economy and that our children will be left with a huge financial burden if the government continues on its course of fiscal irresponsibility. The first chapter details the aging population, and the entire text is heavy on statistics and calculated financial scenarios. The authors end by outlining their own solutions to the troubled economy. This is a sobering look at an impending crisis with implications for all of us. Recommended for all collections.-Stacey Marien, American Univ. Lib., Washington, DC Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Product Details

• Table of Contents

Table of Contents