Description: The article first tries to determine a consensus view of what social security should accomplish and then tries to measure how well the current level of benefits succeeds in meeting these goals. Assessing benefit adequacy is an essential element in putting the overall program on a sound financing footing.

Description: Discussion of social security systems in the English-speaking countries of the Caribbean.

Description: This paper presents a procedure for analyzing the factors that affect federal Old Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance costs in the U.S. This procedure shows that the tripling of the program costs during the last 30 years resulted from increases in the number of beneficiaries as opposed to increases in the number of covered workers. From Transactions of Society of Actuaries 1986, Vol. 38.

Description: This is a discussion of the paper, Mortality Experience under the Old-Age and Survivors Insurance System by Louis O. Shudde. From Transactions of Society of Actuaries 1951, Vol. 3, No. 7.

Description: The author notes that “there is reason to expect 1981 to be the biggest year for Social Security legislation since 1977, perhaps even since 1972. The author further notes that the Congress will be forced to act to bring the system into financial balance. The article discusses some of the actions apt to be considered for legislative action including inter-fund borrowing, general fund borrowing, general revenue financing, changes in retirement age, changes in indexing, move towards universal coverage, and others.

Description: This article is a review of the “Report of the Universal Social Security Coverage Study Group,” published by the department of Health and Human Services in March, 1980. The author of this review notes that the mission of this group was “to examine the feasibility and desirability of mandatory Society Security for employees of the federal government, of state and local governments, and of private non-profit organizations. The article discusses what the report sees as major problems with the lack of universal coverage, and recommendations to address them. Editor’s Note: This is excerpted from a full review to appear in the Transactions.

Description: This is a books review of 'Social Security,' Second Edition, 1981, by Robert J. Myers.

Description: Discusses the report of the fifth Advisory Council which provides recommendations for improving Social Security.

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: This article is about a seminar held on October 30, 1997 to discuss mortality improvement in the NAFTA countries and the impact of such improvements on the financing and benefit adequacy of the countries’ individual social security systems. The gathering of about 80 researchers from a variety of disciplines served as a type of summit meeting on the NAFTA countries’ mortality projections. The seminar was Phase 2 of a three-phase SOA research project, 'Impact of Mortality Improvement on Social Security: Canada, Mexico, and the United States.' The project is intended to provide some guidance for appropriate governmental bodies to use in determining future financing and benefit needs for social security. It is sponsored by the SOA, The Actuarial Foundation [formerly the SOA Foundation], the Retirement Research Foundation, the American Society of Pension Actuaries, the social security administration of each NAFTA country, and the Pension Research Council.