Word: funds
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1990-1999
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...every turn. Several months ago, I contacted them to talk about the price of morality--that is, the cost they have paid for committing a deeply difficult act. Because they have sold the book and film rights to their story (the money, they say, will largely go to a fund for bombing victims), certain aspects of their lives are off limits, but otherwise they were forthcoming and frank...
...actions, he is the opposite of a kid who begs his parents for a puppy and then abandons all custodial duties. Last year, for instance, he spent months lobbying Congress (unsuccessfully) to exempt the Unabomber reward from taxes so the bulk of it could go to the victims' fund he and Linda established. Yet David's life, oddly, may be richer now than it has ever been. As a man who has long existed in the shadow of someone else--first his brother, then his wife--he at last finds himself at the center of things. There are humanitarian awards...
...benefits. So suppose the government balances the non-Social Security budget. What happens to the Social Security surplus? By law, it is invested in special government bonds. (Even if there is no deficit, the government still must issue bonds to replace ones that mature.) So the Social Security trust fund will add $150 billion to its collection of government bonds, and the government will sell $150 billion less to the public...
...what if the government spends more than it takes in, apart from Social Security? Deplorable, to be sure. But what happens? The Social Security trust fund still acquires $150 billion in government bonds. If, say, there is a $50 billion non-Social Security deficit, government borrowing from the public will be $50 billion higher than if the budget was balanced--but $100 billion less than if there weren't a $150 billion Social Security surplus. The government owes somebody an extra $50 billion, but the situation of the Social Security trust fund is exactly the same in either case...
Maybe you're thinking, Yes, but this wouldn't be true if the trust fund could be invested in private securities, as many experts and securities dealers have suggested. Well, you're wrong. Even if the government ran a $150 billion non-Social Security deficit, the trust fund would still have $150 billion to invest. Every dollar the trust fund invests in private-capital markets is an extra dollar the government must turn around and borrow from these same markets, and the non-Social Security deficit has no effect on this melancholy equation...