Nightly Nuance: September 13, 2021

Hello, my friends.

On Friday’s episode of the podcast, we’ll be discussing Ronald Reagan’s legacy. I know that might seem kind of random, but Reagan’s presidency was transformative in ways that I have personally underappreciated and misunderstood. Preparing for that episode sent me down all kinds of paths. One of those paths was thinking more about social security, and that’s what I want to discuss today.

We have a new report to Congress telling us that social security’s long-term solvency is looking a bit bleaker than expected post-pandemic, and I want to think together about how the program works, what “solvency” for social security means, and how the last significant changes to social security took place during the Reagan administration.

Thanks for being here and thinking through these topics with me. - b

Resources:

Trustee's Report to Congress (2021)

Social Security Administration Org Charts 

Retirement Calculator

Social Security Overview - Investopedia

2011 Opinion Piece in WaPo on the funding of Social Security  Biden Fires the Social Security Commissioner

Brookings on Reagan-era reforms 

Medium Piece by Misha Leybovich on history predicting presidential races

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