Report February 2004

Like a recurrent nightmare, the Bush administration, apparently emboldened by its success in getting Congress to start down the road to privatizing Medicare, seems ready to resurrect its proposals to privatize Social Security. Senior Scholar Thomas Hungerford comments in this issue of the Report.

Contents: Comment, "Saving Social Security from Those Who Would ‘Save’ It" * Summary of Conference, "International Perspectives on Household Wealth" * New Publication, "The Levy Institute Measure of Economic Well-Being" * Strategic Anaylsis, "Deficits, Debts, and Growth: A Reprieve But Not a Pardon" * New Policy Notes, "Pushing Germany Off the Cliff Edge," "Deflation Worries," "Is International Growth the Way Out of US Current Account Deficits? A Note of Caution," "The Future of the Dollar: Has the Unthinkable Become Thinkable?" * New Working Paper Titles, "Financial Sector Reforms in Developing Countries with Special Reference to Egypt," "Minsky’s Acceleration Channel and the Role of Money," "Macroeconomic Policies of the Economic and Monetary Union: Theoretical Underpinnings and Challenges," "Household Wealth, Public Consumption, and Economic Well-Being in the United States," "Measures of the Real GDP of US Trading Partners: Methodology and Results," "Inflation Targeting: A Critical Appraisal," "Do Workers with Low Lifetime Earnings Really Have Low Earnings Every Year? Implications for Social Security Reform," "Savings of Entrepreneurs," "Aggregate Demand, Conflict, and Capacity in the Inflationary Process," "Understanding Deflation: Treating the Disease, Not the Symptoms," "A Rolling Tide: Changes in the Distribution of Wealth in the US, 1989-2001," "Wealth Transfer Taxation: A Survey," "On Household Wealth Trends in Sweden over the 1990s," "The Evolution of Wealth Inequality in Canada, 1984-1999," "Financial Globalization and Regulation, "Inequality of the Distribution of Personal Wealth in Germany 1973-1998" * Levy Institute News: New Website, Upcoming Event: 14th Annual Hyman P. Minsky Conference * Publications and Presentations by Levy Institute Scholars, Recent Levy Institute Publications

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