Social Security Reform: An Analysis of the Ball/Altman Three-Point Plan
This article describes and analyzes the costs and benefits of a three-part Social Security reform proposal introduced by Robert Ball and endorsed by Nancy Altman. The Ball/Altman proposal consists of (1) gradually increasing the maximum earnings base until it reaches 90 percent of earnings; (2) dedicating the estate tax to funding Social Security beginning in 2010; and (3) investing a portion of the Social Security trust fund in equities. The article concludes that while the Ball/Altman proposed solution is not costless, it deserves serious consideration.
President Bush's Personal Retirement Accounts: Saving Or Dismantling Social Security
President Bush devoted considerable attention to reforming the Social Security system in his 2005 State of the Union address. After pointing out that the system faces a long-term deficit, the President suggested that carving personal accounts out of the current system would help solve the deficit. Personal accounts, however, would not eliminate Social Security's long-term financing difficulties. Instead, they would fundamentally transform the system from one of social insurance to one of individual ownership and would be the first step toward dismantling it. This Article explains why the Social Security system faces a long-term deficit and why personal accounts would not eliminate that deficit. It then explains why personal accounts would fundamentally transform the current system and would be the first step toward dismantling it.
Far-field dispersal modeling for fuel-air-explosive devices
A computer model for simulating the explosive dispersal of a fuel agent in the far-field regime is described and is applied to a wide variety of initial conditions to judge their effect upon the resulting fuel/air cloud. This work was directed toward modeling the dispersal process associated with Fuel-Air-Explosives devices. The far-field dispersal regime is taken to be that time after the initial burster charge detonation in which the shock forces no longer dominate the flow field and initial canister and fuel mass breakup has occurred. The model was applied to a low vapor pressure fuel, a high vapor pressure fuel and a solid fuel. A strong dependence of the final cloud characteristics upon the initial droplet size distribution was demonstrated. The predicted fuel-air clouds were highly non-uniform in concentration. 18 refs., 86 figs., 4 tabs.