Econ 294
 

Entitlement Reform

My office hours:
M 1:00-3:50pm and W 10:00-11:50am in Maxey 313, or by request. I will also try to have informal "office hours" in the Prentiss dining hall at 6pm on Tuesdays.

Taught spring semester 2005 at Whitman College.

Here is the first draft of the book this class wrote on Social Security! (Note that it's a half-meg .doc file.) Kudos to the authors: Brett Rawson, Caitlin Kearney, Daniel Shaw, Elias Asch, Evan Carman, James Esler, Julia Talley, Max Hensley, Nathan King, Meghan Bunch, Michael Wert, and Steven Johnson!

Web resources

Note: These are not intended to be complete lists. Please email me if you have resources you think should be added.

Government: The place to start is the website of the Social Security Administration. (Don't miss the bizarre Kids' Place.) Budget information from Congress and the White House, respectively, come from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). Another site of potential interest is that of the federal government's watchdog agency, the Government Accountability Office (GAO, which until 2004 was known as the General Accounting Office).

Think tanks: The National Bureau of Economics Research (NBER) is the country's preeminent economics think tank; its President and CEO, Martin Feldstein, on some short lists as a possible replacement for Alan Greenspan when AG's term expires in 2006, recently gave a speech titled "Rethinking Social Insurance" as his Presidential Address at the American Economic Association meeting. But there are also some more overtly political think tanks. On the right there's the Cato Institute Project on Social Security Choice, the Heritage Foundation, and the American Enterprise Institute. On the left there's the Social Security Network (a Century Foundation Project), the Center for American Progress, and the Economic Policy Institute.

Newspapers: I am addicted to slate.com's "Today's Papers" feature, which provides a punchy daily summary of five major newspapers: the New York Times (free registration required), which helpfully has a NYT Social Security page as well as many columns by Princeton economist Paul Krugman, who's views are also summed up in a readable article in The Economists' Voice; the Washington Post (free registration required), which also has a handy WaPo Social Security page; the Wall Street Journal (paid subscription required), which is painfully user-friendless; the Los Angeles Times (free registration required; make sure to check out op-ed editor Michael Kinsley's "proof" that privatization won't work), which provides West Coast cred; and (don't laugh) USA Today, which requires no registration and has the best pictures. (Really, though: don't laugh. They sometimes have excellent articles.) For a local take, you can try the Walla Walla Union-Bulletin, although they tend to just carry the AP wire.

Magazines: Many of these mix free and subscription-only access to articles, but on the libertarian side there's The Economist; on the right side there's Weekly Standard; on the left side there's The Nation; and on the funny side (but potentially offensive and therefore--warning!--not for the easily offended) is The Onion.

Television: The only show even remotely likely to provide enlightment IMHO is PBS's News Hour with Jim Lehrer (on from 6-7pm Monday through Friday). However, the nightly news and cable talk shows do provide a glimpse of how these issues are discussed in the constrained sound bites of television (supposedly the primary source of news for most Americans). Those looking for something funny (but potentially offensive and therefore--warning!--not for the easily offended) should consider The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. (If you're happy with reruns, you can watch the five weekly episodes Monday through Friday from 10-11am or 7-7:30pm. There are also back-to-back shows, one of which may be live, Monday through Thursday from 11pm until midnight.

Complete Course Schedule

(subject to change!)

Note that some of the readings below link to restricted access websites such as JSTOR. Whitman folks should be able to access these from any computer on campus, or from any computer off campus once properly configured with the Whitman proxy server.

Week 1 (starts Monday, January 17)

Tuesday: Introductions

  • Assignment due by 8am Wednesday: Log in to Blackboard and answer the introductory questions you'll find there.

Logging on to Blackboard

  1. Go to the Blackboard webpage.
  2. Log in using your ID (your email name, e.g. bushgw for George W Bush) and your email password. You may get funny error messages or otherwise have trouble logging on, so try this at least three times before moving to Plan B, which is click on the "Forgot My Password" button, and then entering your name and email address in option #2 at the next screen.
  3. You should now be in the Blackboard system. Go to the "Courses" tab and type "Econ 294" in the "search for classes" box. Hopefully this will bring up a search window that correctly lists our class.
  4. Click the "Enroll" button on the right hand side (not the class name!) and then confirm this by clicking "Submit" in the next window.
  5. You should now be in the Blackboard area for Econ 294. Click on "Discussion Board" on the left hand side.
  6. Problems? Read the WCTS help page.
  7. If you are unable to log on to Blackboard, email me your posting or bring a hard copy to class.
  8. If you have suggestions for improving these instructions, send me an email.

Thursday: Discuss the 2004 Annual Report Summary (.pdf) from the Social Security and Medicare Boards of Trustees.

Week 2 (starts Monday, January 24)

Monday: Discuss the Cato Institute Project on Social Security Choice.

Tuesday: Discuss the Social Security Network (a Century Foundation Project).

Thursday: Issues and research topics.

Week 3 (starts Monday, January 31)

Research and sharing, week 1 of 3

Monday: Discuss Yoram's op-ed and Chapter 1 of The Coming Generational Storm.

Tuesday: Discuss Chapters 1 and 2 of The Coming Generational Storm.

Thursday: Book day!

Week 4 (starts Monday, February 7)

Research and sharing, week 2 of 3

Monday: Discuss Chapters 2 and 3 of The Coming Generational Storm.

Tuesday: Discuss Chapters 4 and 5 of The Coming Generational Storm.

Thursday: Book day!

Week 5 (starts Monday, February 14)

Research and sharing, week 3 of 3

Monday: Discuss Chapter 6 of The Coming Generational Storm.

Tuesday: Discuss Chapters 7 and 8 of The Coming Generational Storm.

Thursday: Book day!

Week 6 (starts Monday, February 21)

Writing drafts and discussing, week 1 of 3

Monday: Presidents Day (no class)

Tuesday: Research presentations: Description and analysis of current system (Evan, Julia, Michael)

Thursday: Research presentations: Subgroups (Caitlin, Evan, Meghan)

Week 7 (starts Monday, February 28)

Writing drafts and discussing, week 2 of 3

Monday: Research presentations: Reform proposals (Brett, Dan, Michael, Steve)

Tuesday: Research presentations: Other countries (Caitlin, Eric, Meghan, Max)

Thursday: Research presentations: Private accounts/investment returns (Eli, James, Max, Nate)

Week 8 (starts Monday, March 7)

Writing drafts and discussing, week 3 of 3

Monday: Research presentations: Transition costs (Dan, Eli, Steve)

Tuesday: Research presentations: Trust Fund (Brett, Julia)

Thursday: Book day!

Weeks 9 and 10 (starts Monday, March 14)

Spring Break - No Classes

Week 11 (starts Monday, March 28)

Editing for ideas, week 1 of 3

Monday: Discuss 2005 Trustees Report.

Tuesday: Welfare Theorems and market failure.

Thursday: Insurance. Drafts of the material on the current system and the trust fund are due online by midnight today (or early tomorrow morning) from Evan/Julia/Michael and Brett/Julia, respectively.

Week 12 (starts Monday, April 4)

Editing for ideas, week 2 of 3

Monday: Discuss drafts from Thursday.

Tuesday: No class because of Whitman Undergraduate conference. Drafts of the material on reform proposals, transition costs, and private accounts are due online by midnight today (or early tomorrow morning) from Brett/Dan/Michael/Steve, Dan/Eli/Steve, and Eli/James/Max/Nate, respectively.

Thursday: Discuss drafts from Tuesday. Drafts of the material on the subgroups and other countries are due online by midnight today (or early tomorrow morning) from Caitlin/Evan/Meghan and Caitlin/Meghan/Max, respectively.

Week 13 (starts Monday, April 11)

Editing for ideas, week 3 of 3

Monday: Discuss drafts from Thursday.

Tuesday: Moral hazard and adverse selection.

Thursday: Class visit from Sarah McKinstry, who is a Whitman alum from 2002 and community outreach representative for Senator Patty Murray on Seniors and Medicare/Social Security

Week 14 (starts Monday, April 18)

Editing for grammar/presentation, week 1 of 1

Monday: Relax and have coffee in Reid

Tuesday: Peer editing 1

Thursday: Discuss Marthe R. Gold, "Tea, Biscuits, And Health Care Prioritizing", Health Affairs 24(1): 234-239 (Jan/Feb 2005)

Week 15 (starts Monday, April 25)

Layout/proofreading/final check, week 1 of 1

Monday: Peer editing 2

Tuesday: Discuss Cynthia Smith et al., "Health Spending Growth Slows In 2003", Health Affairs 24(1): 185-194 (Jan/Feb 2005) and the chapter excerpt from George C. Halvorson and George J. Isham, Epidemic of Care (Jossey-Bass, 2003).

Thursday: First draft of completed book!

Week 16 (starts Monday, May 2)

Release party?

Monday: Finish book?

Tuesday: TBD on Medicare/Medicaid

Thursday: Finish book?

Week 17 (starts Monday, May 9)

Monday: TBD.

Tuesday: TBD.

  • Today is the last day of class.

Final exam: 2-4pm on Saturday, May 14

My reading of the final exam schedule indicates that our final is scheduled for the time noted above. Please let me know immediately if you think I have it wrong.

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