This book makes the radical argument that the government's budget deficit--the cornerstone of conventional economic policy analysis and management--is a number devoid of economic content and that its use has repeatedly led us astray.

Generational Accounting: Knowing Who Pays, and When, for What We Spend

Business & Money

Kotlikoff, Laurence J.

Economics

Free Press

Many undergraduate texts treat macroeconomics as a set of distinct topics rather than as a unified body of theory and empirical findings. In contrast, this text by Alan Auerbach and Laurence Kotlikoff uses a single analytic framework -- the two-period life-cycle model -- to explore and connect each of the major issues in contemporary macroeconomics. The model describes the evolution of the economy over time in terms of the behavior of overlapping generations of individuals, each of whom lives for two periods: youth and old age. This versatile framework can encompass most macroeconomic schools of thought through the alteration of key assumptions. The use of one basic model also allows the authors to explore important topics not always addressed adequately in other texts; these include credit constraints, real business cycles, generational accounting, and international capital flows markets.
Written in a clear, accessible style, this shortened and simplified second edition provides a systematic way to interpret macroeconomic outcomes, to understand various policy proposals, and to appreciate how individuals and firms fit into the big picture.

Macroeconomics - 2nd Edition: An Integrated Approach

Auerbach, Alan J.

Mit Pr

The Clash of Generations: Saving Ourselves, Our Kids, and Our Economy (Mit Press)

How America went bankrupt and how we can save ourselves―as a country and as individuals―from economic disaster.
The United States is bankrupt, flat broke. Thanks to accounting that would make Enron blush, America's insolvency goes far beyond what our leaders are disclosing. The United States is a fiscal basket case, in worse shape than the notoriously bailed-out countries of Greece, Ireland, and others. How did this happen? InThe Clash of Generations, experts Laurence Kotlikoff and Scott Burns document our six-decade, off-balance-sheet, unsustainable financing scheme. They explain how we have balanced our longer lives on the backs of our (relatively few) children. At the same time, we've been on a consumption spree, saving and investing less than nothing. And that's not to mention the evisceration of the middle class and a financial system that has proven it can't be trusted. Kotlikoff and Burns outline grassroots strategies for saving ourselves―and especially our children―from what could be a truly catastrophic financial collapse.
Kotlikoff and Burns sounded the alarm in their widely acclaimedThe Coming Generational Storm, but politicians didn't listen. Now the need for action is even more urgent. It's up to us to demand radical reform of our tax system, our healthcare system, and our Social Security system, and to insist on better paths to investment return than those provided by Wall Street (mis)managers. Kotlikoff and Burns's "Purple Plans" (so called because they will appeal to both Republicans and Democrats) have been endorsed by a who's who of economists and offer a new way forward; and their revolutionary investment strategy for individuals replaces the idea of financial capital with "life decision capital."
Of course, we won't be doing all this just for ourselves. We need to fix America's fiscal mess before our kids inherit it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMKw76lBn0k&amp;feature=youtube_gdata_player

The Clash of Generations: Saving Ourselves, Our Kids, and Our Economy

Burns, Scott

What determines savings? The question is timely and important. The U.S. saving rate is less than half that of Japan, Germany, and other developed countries, and the imbalance in saving rates across countries is responsible, in large part for the imbalance in international trade. This book examines a number of important determinants of wealth accumulation, including retirement bequests, and precautionary saving motives, demographics, the tax structure, social security, and insurance institutions. Using a blend of theory, empirical research and simulation methods, it reaches some surprising conclusions about what determines savings.  Kotlikoff notes that most of U.S. wealth is due not to life cycle saving for retirement but rather to bequests and other intergenerational transfers. The process of passing wealth from one generation to the next may be explained, in large part, because of imperfect annuity arrangements.  In addition to life span uncertainty, the author points out other types of uncertainty such as uncertainty about future medical expenditures can greatly stimulate saving. Fiscal policies, such as unfunded social security, can dramatically alter a country's wealth, although the process can take many years. Unfortunately, Kotlikoff observes, official fiscal deficits are intrinsically unreliable for measuring the government's stance of fiscal policy. He also concludes that the baby busts currently underway in the United States, Europe, and Japan are likely to improve overall economic welfare despite their detrimental impacts on social security systems  Laurence J. Kotlikoff is Professor of Economics at Boston University and a Research Associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research.

What Determines Savings?

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. and CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title for 2004 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.

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

A simple, straightforward, and foolproof proposal for universal health insurance from a noted economist.
The shocking statistic is that forty-seven million Americans have no health insurance. When uninsured Americans go to the emergency room for treatment, however, they do receive care, and a bill. Many hospitals now require uninsured patients to put their treatment on a credit card which can saddle a low-income household with unpayably high balances that can lead to personal bankruptcy. Why don't these people just buy health insurance? Because the cost of coverage that doesn't come through an employer is more than many low- and middle-income households make in a year. Meanwhile, rising healthcare costs for employees are driving many businesses under. As for government-supplied health care, ever higher costs and added benefits (for example, Part D, Medicare's new prescription drug coverage) make both Medicare and Medicaid impossible to sustain fiscally; benefits grow faster than the national per-capita income. It's obvious the system is broken. What can we do?
In The Healthcare Fix, economist Laurence Kotlikoff proposes a simple, straightforward approach to the problem that would create one system that works for everyone and secure America's fiscal and economic future. Kotlikoff's proposed Medical Security System is not the "socialized medicine" so feared by Republicans and libertarians; it's a plan for universal health insurance. Because everyone would be insured, it's also a plan for universal healthcare. Participants -- including all who are currently uninsured, all Medicaid and Medicare recipients, and all with private or employer-supplied insurance -- would receive annual vouchers for health insurance, the amount of which would be based on their current medical condition. Insurance companies would willingly accept people with health problems because their vouchers would be higher. And the government could control costs by establishing the values of the vouchers so that benefit growth no longer outstrips growth of the nation's per capita income. It's a "single-payer" plan, but a single payer for insurance. The American healthcare industry would remain competitive, innovative, strong, and private.
Kotlikoff's plan is strong medicine for America's healthcare crisis, but brilliant in its simplicity. Its provisions can fit on a postcard and Kotlikoff provides one, ready to be copied and mailed to your representative in Congress.

The Healthcare Fix: Universal Insurance for All Americans

Health, Fitness & Dieting

Many undergraduate texts treat macroeconomics as a set of distinct topics rather than as a unified body of theory and empirical findings. In contrast, this text by Alan Auerbach and Laurence Kotlikoff uses a single analytic framework―the two-period life-cycle model―to explore and connect each of the major issues in contemporary macroeconomics. The model describes the evolution of the economy over time in terms of the behavior of overlapping generations of individuals, each of whom lives for two periods: youth and old age. This versatile framework can encompass most macroeconomic schools of thought through the alteration of key assumptions. The use of one basic model also allows the authors to explore important topics not always addressed adequately in other texts; these include credit constraints, real business cycles, generational accounting, and international capital flows markets.
Written in a clear, accessible style, this shortened and simplified second edition provides a systematic way to interpret macroeconomic outcomes, to understand various policy proposals, and to appreciate how individuals and firms fit into the big picture.

Literature & Fiction

Dramas & Plays

The MIT Press

"...if you demand the deepest and most powerful planning engine, look no further." -- The Washington Post ESPlanner, developed by Economic Security Planning, Inc., revolutionizes financial planning. Traditional financial planning makes you set your own saving and life insurance targets. This is hard and, if you set your targets too low, dangerous. ESPlanner finds your targets for you by doing life cycle consumption smoothing--finding the most you can spend today without suffering a drop in living standard tomorrow. ESPlanner not only calculates your family's highest sustainable living standard, it also determines the amounts of saving and life insurance you need to maintain and protect that living standard through time. ESPlanner delivers its findings in the form of annual spending, saving, and insurance recommendations. Whether you're working or retired, maximizing and smoothing your household's living standard isn't easy. Many factors are involved, including your household composition, assets, earnings, retirement ages, housing expenses and plans, special expenditures, estate plans, pensions, tax-favored assets, federal and state income taxes, payroll taxes, Social Security retirement and survivor benefits, desired changes in living standard, economies in shared living, and borrowing constraints. ESPlanner considers these and a host of other factors, including contingent plans and the fact that survivors may have different needs and incomes. ESPlanner also lets you vary key inputs, such as the ages at which you'll retire, collect Social Security retirement benefits, and start to withdraw tax-deferred assets, to determine how these choices affect your maximum sustainable living standard. Although its calculations are complex, ESPlanner's interface is user-friendly, and its recommendations are easy to follow. System requirements: Runs on Windows 95, Windows 98, or Windows NT v.4.0 with Service Pack 4. Minimum requirements: Intel® Pentium® II or faster processor (266 MHz) with 32 MB of RAM. Recommended: Intel® Pentium® II or faster processor (400MHz) with 64MB RAM. Here's what's new in ESPlanner2000: · Updated Federal Income Tax Provisions and More Accurate Calculation of Taxes on Long-term Capital Gains · Updated Social Security Benefit Provisions, including Pending Changes in the Earnings Test · Updated Social Security Tax Provisions · Updated of all State Income Tax Provisions and Much More Refined Treatment of Itemized Deductions · Simplified Controls for Inputting Dates · Ability to Save Results to Excel and Use Excel to Chart Results · Revised Manual and Tutorial

ESPlannerTM 2000: Revolutionary Financial Planning Software - CD-ROM edition

Gokhale, Jagadeesh

Bernheim, Douglas B.

Williams, Lowell

Finance

ESPlannerTM 2000: Revolutionary Financial Planning Software - CD-ROM edition for professional financial planners

Bernheim, Douglas

MIT Press (MA)

How to avoid a fiscal crisis in the next generation― and how to protect yourself if the government acts too late: policy recommendations and individual strategies to protect against skyrocketing tax rates, drastically reduced health and retirement benefits, high inflation, and a ruined currency.
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.
This paperback edition of The Coming Generational Storm has been revised and updated and includes a new foreword by the authors.

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

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Kotlikoff, Laurence J.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Kotlikoff, Laurence J.

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Kotlikoff, Laurence J.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Generational Accounting: Knowing Who Pays, and When, for What We Spend

Macroeconomics - 2nd Edition: An Integrated Approach

The Clash of Generations: Saving Ourselves, Our Kids, and Our Economy

What Determines Savings?

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

The Healthcare Fix: Universal Insurance for All Americans

Macroeconomics - 2nd Edition: An Integrated Approach

ESPlannerTM 2000: Revolutionary Financial Planning Software - CD-ROM edition

ESPlannerTM 2000: Revolutionary Financial Planning Software - CD-ROM edition for professional financial planners

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