 March 2004
6 x 9, 294 pp.
(CLOTH)
Short
ISBN-10:
0-262-11286-8
ISBN-13:
978-0-262-11286-4
Out Of Print
| | Paper (2005)
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The Coming Generational Storm
What You Need to Know about America's Economic Future
Laurence J. Kotlikoff and Scott Burns
 Table of Contents and Sample Chapters
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 America handle this demographic overload? 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 current administration is heading straight into the coming generational storm.
But don't panic. To solve a problem you must first understand it. Kotlikoff and Burns take us on a guided tour of our generational imbalance, first introducing us to the baby boomers— their long retirement years and "the protracted delay in their departure to the next world." Then 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.
So how can the United States avoid this demographic/fiscal collision? Kotlikoff and Burns propose bold new policies, including meaningful reforms of Social Security, and Medicare. Their proposals are simple, straightforward, and geared to attract support from both political parties. But just in case politicians won't take the political risk to chart a new direction, Kotlikoff and Burns also offer a "life jacket"— guidelines for individuals to protect their financial health and retirement.
About the Authors
Laurence J. Kotlikoff is Professor of Economics at Boston University. One of the nation's leading experts on fiscal policy, national saving, and personal finance, Kotlikoff is the author of Essays on Savings, Bequests, Altruism, and Life-Cycle Planning (2001), Generational Policy (2003), The Coming Generational Storm (2004), all published by The MIT Press, and other books.
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.
| "excellent and scary"
—Nicholas Kristof, New York Times "...Kotlikoff and Burns proffer plenty of evidence to back up their claims."
—Anne Wagner, National Journal "This is a book any serious investor should absorb and act upon."
—Jonathan Chevreau, National Post View All Reviews |
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| "There's a lot of frivolous criticism of our politicians, but this book hits the mark, convincingly documenting their biggest sin: the failure to account for the magnitude of a huge government deficit crisis. The accounting scandals of Enron, WorldCom, and Parmalat pale by comparison. Read this book so you can start preparing for much higher taxes in the future for you and your children."
—Robert J. Shiller, Yale University, author of Irrational Exuberance and The New Financial Order
"I lie awake nights worrying about the fiscal crisis described in The Coming Generational Storm. This is by far the single most important problem in U.S. economic policy. Every American should read this fabulous book."
—George Akerlof, University of California, Berkeley, Nobel Laureate in Economic Sciences (2001)
"Among academic experts, Larry Kotlikoff has earned the title 'Mr. Generational Accounting.' His unfuzzy arithmetic decisively rebuts the Bush tax cuts, which are based on the delusion that 5 - 4 = 6, not 1. Read and judge for yourself the specter of our future: too many retirees dependent on too few working-age people. Fiscal imprudence now mandates broken promises later."
—Paul A. Samuelson, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Nobel Laureate in Economic Sciences (1970)
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| One of Library Journal's Best Business 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.
CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title for 2004
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