Wednesday, September 22, 2010

The retirement conundrum

Amercians should be worried (and the rest of the world too). Especially as the population is aging and the speculation is that by 2016, the US Government will be paying out more in Social Security than what it collects in taxation revenue.

Congressional Budget Office (CBO)'s has reported the US debt to be $US13.4 trillion, approximately 92 per cent of GDP. This figure does not include obligations for Social Security and Medicare.

The situation is unsustainable. Let's hope the Americans are saving hard for their retirement and their future. Just like us here in OZ, neither of us can rely on our respective governments to fund our retirement.

Our own Current Account Deficit (CAD) as of the June quarter was $5.6 billion, which is 1.7% of our GDP. Looks benign compared to the Americans. However, we're pretty much in the same leaking boat since our population is also aging and the pension payments aren't sustainable.

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