Keep Calm
I don't know why I keep reading about the problem of homelessness in this country. If people can't afford their homes in the city, why don't they just move to their summer houses?
This is basically a screed about a poorly-framed headline on the CNBC website yesterday. Men Better at Saving for Retirement Than Women: Report.
Yes, isn't it just shocking how a group of people who tend to be paid less and bear a larger share of the burden of childrearing and homemaking put less money into the piggy bank than the better-paid gender?
The study is actually from Scottish Widows plc, which despite its colorful name is a subsidiary of the Lloyds Banking Group, better known as the venerable Lloyds of London. Scottish Widows began as a life assurance (what we call insurance) firm in 1815, and currently offers savings accounts, investments, and pension funds. Scottish Widows uses the image of a very attractive young lady in a black hooded cloak, representing her bereavement, with a red satin lining, representing - oh, hell, you don't have to be Fellini to figure this out. Just bear in mind the risk of comforting distressed widows.
It's an well-designed brochure, but doesn't go much deeper than, "Women are saving less for retirement than men. They need to save more." Well, duh!
A huge number of people are saving too little for retirement. Might this have something to do with the fact that the median household income has declined significantly in the past decade? Might it have something to do with the fact that Britain is in a double-dip recession? And why is this big news on an American website?
Probably because here in the US, we're not doing any better. The standard of living hasn't declined quite as much thanks to anti-poverty programs like food stamps and earned income tax credit, but the median family income is down 7% over the last ten years.
There are many factors at work here, some if not most of which I only dimly understand. The unhappy part is this: the US is the world's largest economic power. We're like an oil tanker. The only thing that happens quickly to a vessel our size is hitting an iceberg. Like credit default swaps / mortgage bubble / collapse of the banking system icebergs. Every other change of course takes a long, long time.
We might get down to 6 percent unemployment by the end of the second Obama administration. Those 12 million new jobs promised by the former one-term unpopular governor of Massachusetts? You know, the ones he mentioned before he said that the government can't create jobs? According to Moody's Analytics, that's how many new jobs they expect will be created by 2016, no matter who sits in the Oval Office. See Forbes for details.
So, what do we do? That's something we can learn from the British. Keep calm and carry on. The worst is over, it is getting better. Progress is slow, lagging indicators like how much people saved last year are still grim, but it's getting better.
Keep calm and carry on.
This is basically a screed about a poorly-framed headline on the CNBC website yesterday. Men Better at Saving for Retirement Than Women: Report.
Yes, isn't it just shocking how a group of people who tend to be paid less and bear a larger share of the burden of childrearing and homemaking put less money into the piggy bank than the better-paid gender?
The study is actually from Scottish Widows plc, which despite its colorful name is a subsidiary of the Lloyds Banking Group, better known as the venerable Lloyds of London. Scottish Widows began as a life assurance (what we call insurance) firm in 1815, and currently offers savings accounts, investments, and pension funds. Scottish Widows uses the image of a very attractive young lady in a black hooded cloak, representing her bereavement, with a red satin lining, representing - oh, hell, you don't have to be Fellini to figure this out. Just bear in mind the risk of comforting distressed widows.
It's an well-designed brochure, but doesn't go much deeper than, "Women are saving less for retirement than men. They need to save more." Well, duh!
A huge number of people are saving too little for retirement. Might this have something to do with the fact that the median household income has declined significantly in the past decade? Might it have something to do with the fact that Britain is in a double-dip recession? And why is this big news on an American website?
Probably because here in the US, we're not doing any better. The standard of living hasn't declined quite as much thanks to anti-poverty programs like food stamps and earned income tax credit, but the median family income is down 7% over the last ten years.
There are many factors at work here, some if not most of which I only dimly understand. The unhappy part is this: the US is the world's largest economic power. We're like an oil tanker. The only thing that happens quickly to a vessel our size is hitting an iceberg. Like credit default swaps / mortgage bubble / collapse of the banking system icebergs. Every other change of course takes a long, long time.
We might get down to 6 percent unemployment by the end of the second Obama administration. Those 12 million new jobs promised by the former one-term unpopular governor of Massachusetts? You know, the ones he mentioned before he said that the government can't create jobs? According to Moody's Analytics, that's how many new jobs they expect will be created by 2016, no matter who sits in the Oval Office. See Forbes for details.
So, what do we do? That's something we can learn from the British. Keep calm and carry on. The worst is over, it is getting better. Progress is slow, lagging indicators like how much people saved last year are still grim, but it's getting better.
Keep calm and carry on.