In 2007, the Social Security Trustees suggested that either the payroll tax could increase to 16.41 percent in 2041 and steadily increased to 17.60 percent in 2081 or a cut in benefits by 25 percent in 2041 and steadily increased to an overall cut of 30 percent in 2081.
effective rate of protection. the real amount of PROTECTION accorded to domestic suppliers of a final product when a TARIFF is applied to a competing imported final product (see IMPORTS), but either no tariff, or a lower rate of tariff, is applied on FACTOR INPUTS that are imported to produce that product.
Risk-free interest rate. The risk-free interest rate is the theoretical rate of return of an investment with no risk of financial loss, over a given period of time. Since the risk-free rate can be obtained with no risk, any other investment having some risk will have to have a higher rate of return in order to induce any investors to hold it.