Free Republic

As the national debate intensifies over the solvency of Social Security, Truth in Accounting (TIA) is urging policymakers and the public to look deeper: beyond “trust fund” projections and into the silent erosion of benefits through inflation. TIA board member Chuck Chokel has compiled a sobering analysis of the dollar’s decline over three overlapping 50-year periods. His findings illustrate that even if Social Security checks keep coming, their purchasing power has steadily—and dramatically—shrunk: 1925–1975: $100 in 1925 had the purchasing power of $33.21 in 1975, representing a 67% decrease in purchasing power. 1950–2000: $100 in 1950 was worth just $13.92...

In their Financial State of the Cities 2025 report, Truth in Accounting studied eight Texas cities and found their cumulative debt is a steep $37.45 billion. Austin had the highest share with $9.8 billion in debt, while Plano had the least at $467.9 million. “The data confirms what most people suspect—Texas’ local governments are addicted to debt. And that has major consequences for today’s taxpayers and tomorrow’s Texans,” James Quintero of the Texas Public Policy Foundation stated.

In fiscal 2022, 70 percent of the largest cities in the U.S. did not have enough money to pay their bills. In the latest comprehensive analysis of the fiscal health of the 75 most populous cities in the U.S., 53 did not have enough money to pay all of their bills, according to a Truth in Accounting analysis of the latest annual comprehensive financial reports from 2022. In its eighth annual Financial State of the Cities report, TIA found that the 75 largest cities in the U.S. had $307.4 billion worth of assets available to pay bills but their debt,...

Bloomberg, one of the nation's most respected financial news sources, recently reported that the multi-hundred-billion-dollar stimulus package recently signed into law will push the government's total commitment to addressing our economic crisis over the past year to a total of about $9.7 trillion. That's enough to send a $1,430 check to every man, woman and child in the world. It's enough to pay off more than 90 percent of all home mortgage loans in the U.S. We've dealt so much in hundreds of billions and trillions over the past several months that these massive numbers have become almost commonplace. But,...