The Debt Dispatch

5 days ago | debtdispatch.substack.com | Romina Boccia |Ivane Nachkebia

Today, we released a new Cato policy analysis, “Rethinking Social Security from a Global Perspective,” which explores Social Security’s structural problems and draws lessons from pension reform experiences in Canada, Germany, New Zealand, and Sweden. This paper provides a high-level summary of our upcoming book, Reimagining Social Security: Global Lessons for Retirement Policy Changes, to be published in August 2025. See the paper’s summary blog here.

1 week ago | debtdispatch.substack.com | Romina Boccia |Ivane Nachkebia

The Social Security Trustees released their annual report today—and the outlook is bleak. The program is barreling toward insolvency—and fast. The trust fund is projected to run dry in 2033, triggering an automatic 23 percent benefit cut—a 10 percent increase from last year’s projected 21 percent benefit cut.

1 week ago | debtdispatch.substack.com | Romina Boccia |Ivane Nachkebia

Here are this week’s reading links and fiscal facts:Deportations could add $900 billion to the debt over 10 years. Cato’s David J. Bier argues that the cost of immigration and border-related provisions in the “One Big Beautiful Bill” is likely much higher than the Congressional Budget Office’s (CBO) $168 billion estimate.

2 weeks ago | debtdispatch.substack.com | Romina Boccia |Ivane Nachkebia

Here are this week’s reading links and fiscal facts:Fiscal irresponsibility threatens fiscal dominance. Mercatus Center’s David Beckworth explains how fiscal policy dominated monetary policy during World War II: “From 1942 to 1951, the Fed operated under an explicit agreement with the Treasury to cap interest rates across the yield curve to support wartime financing.

3 weeks ago | debtdispatch.substack.com | Romina Boccia |Ivane Nachkebia

Here are this week’s reading links and fiscal facts:Raise the Social Security retirement age. In response to the aging population and the fiscal pressures that come with it, Denmark recently raised its retirement age to 70 for workers born in 1971 or later (those aged 54 or younger in 2025). Notably, Denmark has indexed its government pension retirement age to life expectancy since 2006—a model the United States should follow.