Amazing statement on CNBC Squawkbox

CNBC Squawkbox ^ | Aug. 20, 2010

[ReleaseTheHounds]

Around 7:30 this morning, noted financial columnist for the New York Times Andrew Ross Sorkin made an astounding statement that I can only paraphrase.

He said that a recent Paul Krugman piece in the NYT was encouraging that the Social Security Trust Fund may actually be in better shape than generally believed and may actually have a longer expected life than the (around) 2037 forecast.

When Joe Kernan and the guest at that time (Ed Yardeni) challenged him saying there's nothing in the trust fund, Ross Sorkin came back saying "well I found Krugman's piece very persuasive."

The link is to CNBC's Squawkbox -- maybe a video clip of this exchange will be posted soon. Amazing.

[ReleaseTheHounds]

When you have one "New York Times financial expert" quoting another "New York Times Nobel award winning economist and columnist" about the strength and soundness of the Social Security Trust Fund, you really have entered that parallel universe that the New York Times has been trying to create over the past several decades.

[Virginia Ridgerunner]

Krugman's credibility is completely shot...

Paul Krugman Gives Up

[FreedomPoster]

Kernan should have asked Sorkin if he also believes in unicorns and leprechauns, as well as the Social Security Trust Fund, since they are all similar mythical beasties.

[raybbr]

Paul Krugman Gives Up

I saw that and read his blog. He hasn't given up so much as said, "I am going to write what I believe and only listen to supporters." While to us, that's giving up, to him it's a declaration of victory.

[Man50D]

He said that a recent Paul Krugman piece in the NYT was encouraging that the Social Security Trust Fund may actually be in better shape than generally believed and may actually have a longer expected life than the (around) 2037 forecast.

Businesses, who are far more efficient than the federal government, typically budget their money annually and this clown expects us to believe the federal government can budget their money more than 27 years in the future! LOL!!!

[mike-zed]

In that same discussion they were throwing around “regime change” with gusto. I loved it.

Sorkin is an idiot. But with the two leftists out I guess they had a quota to fill.

[RayChuang88]

The Left is totally delusional again.

That's why I'm a big fan of FairTax. Why? Because by ending all taxation on bank account interest, you can essentially create your own private retirement account (imagine socking away 7-10% of every paycheck into this account for your working life without worries about its interest being taxed--you could build up a pretty big retirement "nest egg" in 20-30 years). Essentially, you created your own alternative to Social Security retirement.

Indeed, FairTax's emphasis on cash financing is actually vasty better for the country overall.

[longtermmemmory]

you can go to the cnbc website and link directly to the site. Is it another santelli moment? we have to link and save it before it gets pulled.

[Uncle Miltie]

0bamaCare is going to kill so many elderly, that Social Security won’t have to pay out.

[AU72]

I fully expect my first SS check to be confetti.

[cgbg]

If I were attorney general any public official or economist who said the words “social security trust fund” would be indicted for fraud.

There is an account with nothing in it but non-marketable IOUs from Treasury—so at this point any use of the term has no other purpose than to deceive and bamboozle the American public.

The public hears the word “trust fund” and they think “lots and lots of cash or other liquid assets”.

Even you can try this—open a safety deposit box and put an IOU in it for a trillion dollars. Announce at a family gathering that you have established a “trust fund” for nephew James. Then with great ceremony give the keys to James. Then watch what happens next.

[longtermmemmory]

The fair tax is a scam and a fraud.

I have read the original bill on thomas.gov

EVERYONE has to register
oldIRS is replaced with NuIRS
a perpetual monthly welfare check (I demand a living prebate)
The government decides what is or is not a family unit.(iow living together, normal family, divorced family etc etc)

ALL transaction MUST be reported to the govenment and they will determine if taxes are owed.

The notion that fair scam is the most studied is a joke. The current system stinks and should be replaced, fairscam is NOT it.

[screaminsunshine]

Some believe there is actual money in the ‘trust fund’. Social Security is a bigger Ponzi than Bernie Madoff could have ever come up with. Yes delusional is a good description.

[Doogle]

"I am going to write what I believe and only listen to supporters."

.....typically liberal way of thinking, and they no longer wonder why networks and newspapers are failing.....full steam ahead....fastest lemmings stay left

[OrioleFan]

I fully expect my first SS check to be confetti.

Since even Republicans are talking about means testing, if Obama health care doesn't kill me, they'll find a way to make sure I never get anything back. Thank God, for the 2nd ammendment!

[OrioleFan]

So you’re saying ObamaCare is the new Democrat scheme to save Social Security. Interesting take...

[RayChuang88]

Even the flat tax as proposed by Steve Forbes in 2005 is a major improvement—for one reason: it ends taxation on bank account interest, capital gains and stock dividend payments. That means you can save and invest with no tax consequences, allowing you to create your private retirement “nest egg.”

[rbg81]

As I understand it, the SS Trust Fund is just a bunch of IOUs (bonds) from the Government. At some point, to pay SS claims, you’ve got to cash in those IOUs for $$. That basically means you have to roll over the debt (sell an equivalent number of replacement bonds). Normally, that’s not that much of a problem. In this case, however, there is so much debt that it may not be doable. The only way to make it happen is for the Federal Reserve to buy the debt, with newly printed $$. Of course, that’s hyperinflationary, but politically more palatable than not giving grandma her food $$. The other thing that may help is stop giving COLA increases (which is currently happening).

[Just A Nobody]

open a safety deposit box and put an IOU in it for a trillion dollars. Announce at a family gathering that you have established a “trust fund” for nephew James.

On April 5, 2005, after visiting the Bureau of Public Debt in Parkersburg, West Virginia, President Bush said:

"I have just come from the Bureau of Public Debt. ... I went there because I'm trying to make a point about the Social Security trust. You see, a lot of people in America think there's a trust, in this sense -- that we take your money through payroll taxes and then we hold it for you, and then when you retire, we give it back to you. But that's not the way it works.

"There is no 'trust fund,' just IOUs that I saw firsthand, that future generations will pay -- will pay for either in higher taxes, or reduced benefits, or cuts to other critical government programs."