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To: Toddsterpatriot
[John Williams is] a joke ... He makes lots of silly claims.

I have followed the guy closely for the past year or so and he is almost always spot on. Furthermore, he clearly explains the basis for his conclusions and I have consistently found his arguments well reasoned and based on fact.

Since they don't index Social Security with CPI, your claim is meaningless.

According to the U.S. Social Security Administration:

Legislation enacted in 1973 provides for cost-of-living adjustments, or COLAs. With COLAs, Social Security and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits keep pace with inflation. ... The Social Security Act specifies a formula for determining each COLA. In general, a COLA is equal to the percentage increase in the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W) from the third quarter of one year to the third quarter of the next.

Sometime, check out what the Bureau of Labor Statistics does and does not include in its definition of CPI-W. Pay particular attention to changes made during the Clinton Administration.

17 posted on 07/30/2010 9:45:08 AM PDT by Zakeet (The Big Wee Wee -- rapidly moving America from WTF to SNAFU to FUBAR)
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To: Zakeet
I have followed the guy closely for the past year or so and he is almost always spot on.

John Williams is a doomer who likes to creates charts of doom but never really explains how he arrives at his numbers. He makes a lot of money selling his doom, in the form of a scary newsletter, to other doomers who believe the world as we know it is doomed.

John can never explain why the inflation he sees is many times higher than what the bond market sees. His 5%-10% inflation claims (that's quite a range, don't you think?) are never reflected in the bond market - Five-Year Treasury yielding 1.71%; Two-Year Treasury yielding .6%.

Williams is good if you like being scared but his arguments are not well reasoned or based on facts. He doesn't like sharing his facts, only his conclusions.

19 posted on 07/30/2010 10:12:39 AM PDT by Mase (Save me from the people who would save me from myself!)
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To: Zakeet
I have followed the guy closely for the past year or so and he is almost always spot on.

Yeah, his fantasy GDP numbers are funny.

Since they don't index Social Security with CPI, your claim is meaningless

According to the U.S. Social Security Administration:

Legislation enacted in 1973 provides for cost-of-living adjustments,

I thought you were discussing indexing?

Indexed earnings used to compute initial benefits When we compute a person's retirement benefit, we use the national average wage indexing series to index that person's earnings. Such indexation ensures that a worker's future benefits reflect the general rise in the standard of living that occurred during his or her working lifetime.

National Average Wage Index

Sometime, check out what the Bureau of Labor Statistics does and does not include in its definition of CPI-W.

It includes food and energy. Did you have a different point?

20 posted on 07/30/2010 10:16:36 AM PDT by Toddsterpatriot (Math is hard. Harder if you're stupid.)
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