We can split hairs regarding Social Security contributing to the deficit or we can take an unsplit hair and go back to the original legislation which says Social Security will be a self supporting Act. Funded by the withholding of contributions from employees and employers. Secondarily, the surplus funds are invested in Treasury Bills which is where the Federal Government taps into those surplus funds or borrows them. Now , if this adds to the deficit, that is not due to the Social Security Fund being short. Social Security in its many revisions still has assets to pay out to retirees until 2037. Granted there are problems ahead that need to be addressed quickly, but not by demonizing Social Security in stating it ... More »

I'm not sure I would call it good journalism, it is good opinion. Professor Krugman is a good analyst, I would have preferred more detail on the role that speculators and government policies play in commodity pricing. One example: the artificial price increases to corn, due to US Government subsidies to agriculture and specifically monopolies such as ADM.