Title: The Shipwreck, 1805
Artist: Joseph Mallord William Turner (English 1775-1851)
Medium: Oil on Canvas
Permanent Collection: Tate, London, Bequeathed by Artist, 1856
Image Courtesy: National Gallery of Art, Washington
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The Social Security Trust Fund wracked up another monthly deficit for October. The shortfall was $4.2 billion. This is the 5th consecutive month of red ink for the Fund. The total for the period comes to $15 billion. Blame the economy and the boomers for this problem. Some basic measures of the Fund's performance are rapidly deteriorating.
A critical measure is the ratio of Payroll Tax receipts to Benefits paid. The following chart looks at that ratio over time. That ratio will fall below 1.0 for the full year 2009. As of today we are living off of the interest.
Click chart to enlarge.
Health care is small beer compared to SS. My estimate on the current imbalance of the fund is close to $7 trillion on a NPV [net present value] basis. We are on a ship traveling at high speed toward a rocky shoal. And it is foggy and no one has a clue.
SS is too hot a potato to come up for a resolution prior to next year’s elections. That would imply it comes up for discussion sometime in 2011. The Fund can’t wait that long. I just keep wondering when the MSM will wake up to this. -- More at Zero Hedge.
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