This is the first part of a series (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4)
We’ve seen these headlines in the news over the course of the last few months:
“The U.S. Is Going Broke”
“Social Security’s Coming Crisis”
“There’s No Way Out of this Unemployment Crunch”
“Exploding Federal Debt – Why so Dangerous”
From an economist’s standpoint, these problems aren’t new. We’ve seen these exact problems before in our lifetime. In fact, these headlines aren’t new either – they were all written between 1972 and 1984!
Sure the details may be different, but the overall issues have always been there, percolating on the back burner. Once the media picks up on the problem, they package it up in a way to grab your attention so you buy the publication, see the banner ad, or watch the advertisement.