On the Edge: America Faces the Entitlements Cliff

by Merrill Matthews, Mark E. Litow

Entitlement programs have become an unsustainable financial strain on every developed economy, dragging those economies to the precipice of the fiscal cliff—if they haven’t already fallen off. This book’s theme is that when politicians set up entitlement programs to provide welfare, health care and pension benefits to certain populations, they overpromise benefits, underfund the programs, and misalign incentives—if not initially, then soon afterward. Over time, future elected officials expand the programs to cover more people with richer benefits, far outpacing the financing needed to sustain them. This book exposes those practices and provides actuarially sound long-term solutions.

Kindle Edition

Published March 25, 2019