Description: The author discusses a perceived loophole in the Social Security system whereby an employer could reduce employees’ wages by all or a portion of their Social Security payroll tax and then pay this tax for the employees. This procedure, which had been little used through the years except by householders employing domestic workers, was dubbed “FICA-II,” and the article notes that 1980 legislation prohibited the practice other than for domestic workers and a few other limited exemptions.

Description: This is a discussion of the paper, 1954 Amendments to the Social Security Act by Robert J. Myers. From Transactions of Society of Actuaries 1955, Vol. 7, No. 19.

Description: This paper briefly outlines the methodology involved in the preparation of the national life tables for 1959-61. Then an analysis is made of past mortality trends and current mortality differentials by age, sex, and race.

Description: This paper first discusses the history of the legislation of the joint and survivor benefits for the uniformed service personnel. It then goes on to address the specific actuarial assumptions made and the formulas developed for applying these assumptions for adaptability to the UNIVAC. This paper closes with specific programming procedures involved in using the UNIVAC.

Description: In this paper the authors discuss the official decennial Unites States Life Tables for 1979-81, presenting age-specific mortality rates and expectations of life. Mortality trends are examined going back to the first decennial tables published at the beginning of the century, and brief comparisons with mortality in other industrialized countries are made. The paper includes written discussion. From the 1985 Transactions Vol. 37.

Description: This article is a review of the 1977 book “The Future of Social Security,” by Alicia H. Munnell, formerly on the staff of the Brookings Institution and now an Assistant Vice President of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. The author of this review notes that the financial problems of the Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance program have drawn considerable public attention during the past few years, and this has produced quite a number of books and papers on the subject with various recommendations as to what should be done about the future of the program. The reviewer thinks highly of this book, which covers the philosophical questions of individual equity vs. social adequacy, and the question of the effect of OASDI on savings and capital accumulation. Note: A detailed review of the book will appear in the Transactions.

Description: Reports on recent month-end fund balances in the Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance funds. They had been facing a great financial crisis recently and now are in much better financial condition.

Description: From the 1960 Transactions Vol. 12 No. 32, this article is a discussion of the paper ‘A New Remarriage Table,’ by A. M. Niessen, which also appears in this volume of the Transactions. The contributors to the discussion provide their comments with respect to Mr. Niessen’s paper, which is based on his studies of widows’ remarriage rates.

Description: This paper discussed highlights of the history and contents of the 1950 and the 1952 Amendments to the Social Security Act.

Description: This paper presents the amendments enacted by Congress in 1958 to the Social Security Act. From Transactions of Society of Actuaries 1959, Vol. 11, No. 29 AB.