Retirement Security / The Aging of the Population

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Vice President Greg Anrig

Greg Anrig, is Vice President for Programs who writes on employment and retiree benefits; Social Security solvency and reform; economic security; and tax reform.

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• Blog Post: Graph of the Day: Few Americans Prepared for Retirement
  Few Americans are prepared for retirement, according to a  national survey that finds nearly half of all workers with less than $10,000 in...
  Mar 14, 2012
• Issue Brief: The Impact of Housing and Investment Market Declines On the Wealth of Baby Boomers
  The bursting of the housing bubble in 2007, the financial meltdown in 2008, and the most severe recession since the Great Depression have destabilized the economic security of the baby boom generation of Americans—just at the time when they are approaching retirement. And, for baby boomers, the housing equity that they expected would be their major asset in retirement has plummeted in value and remains far lower than it was just a couple of years ago.
  Aug 5, 2010
• Person: Greg Anrig
  Greg Anrig, is Vice President for Programs who writes on employment and retiree benefits; Social Security solvency and reform; economic security; and tax reform.
  Jul 21, 2010
• Commentary: Remembering Bob Butler
  Robert Butler virtually created the modern field of geriatrics. He changed the way we view aging and he shaped the National Institute on Aging as its first director. He also looked beyond the medical and scientific aspects of aging by leading discussions around the world on income and community support for older people. He founded the International Longevity Center and made it a place where journalists, policy students, and health professionals could come together and reach a greater understanding of the science, politics, and sociology of aging. He also edited a volume published by The Century Foundation titled Life In An Older America.
  Jul 6, 2010
• Video: Longevity Revolution: Q&A Video
  A discussion with Pulitzer Prize-winning author and geriatric specialist Dr. Robert Butler about his new book, The Longevity Revolution: The Benefits and Challenges of Living a Long Life.
  Mar 19, 2009
• Video: Longevity Revolution: Discussion Video
  A discussion with Pulitzer Prize-winning author and geriatric specialist Dr. Robert Butler about his new book, The Longevity Revolution: The Benefits and Challenges of Living a Long Life.
  Mar 19, 2009
• Video: Longevity Revolution: Highlights Video
  A discussion with Pulitzer Prize-winning author and geriatric specialist Dr. Robert Butler about his new book, The Longevity Revolution: The Benefits and Challenges of Living a Long Life.
  Mar 19, 2009
• Event: The Longevity Revolution
  With our current recession deepening amid rising costs of healthcare, plunging 401k portfolios, and the collapse of the housing market, there is growing evidence that retirement security for today's seniors is unstable, at best. According to a recent Demos report, 78% of senior households are financially vulnerable, or lack the resources necessary to sustain themselves through the rest of their lives. With the baby boomer generation approaching retirement age, the future for older Americans is more uncertain than ever.
  Mar 18, 2009
• Event: Reforming Medicare: Options, Tradeoffs, and Opportunities
  As baby-boomers begin to retire and health care spending continues to outpace income growth, Medicare faces a dire financial future. Critics from the left and right criticize the costly Medicare program variously for gaps in coverage or bureaucratic rigidity. All agree that Medicare requires reform—and soon.
  Jul 29, 2008
• Commentary: Tender Loving Computers: Caregivers of the Future?
  The current shortage of nurses and other caregivers for the elderly, already severe, is bound to increase dramatically as the baby boomers age. While a few states have put in place programs designed to alleviate the severity of the coming shortage, such as educational loans to those interested in nursing careers, they are far from enough to end it.
  Sep 11, 2007
• Commentary: An Absence of Tender Loving Care: The Nursing Home Dilemma
  When an aging individual can no longer manage on his or her own and cannot afford home health care, which usually is paid for out-of-pocket, entering a nursing home is often the only solution. Acknowledging the need to enter such a facility is a decision that people put off for as long as possible for a number of reasons.
  Apr 25, 2007
• Commentary: Looming Federal Deficits: Don’t Blame the Elderly
  When Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke warned of looming future budget deficits in his widely quoted statement of January 18, he said nothing incorrect. Nevertheless, his statement is fundamentally misleading, a fact attested to by the failure of every commentary I have read to understand the true significance of the fiscal threat.
  Jan 21, 2007
• Commentary: The Long-term Costs of Being a Working Woman
  After seeing a teaser for an NBC Evening News report, which mentioned that since 1980 the number of women working past traditional retirement age had increased by 38 percent because of financial need, I sought more information by Googling the words “38 percent+ women+ work.” In scanning the first hundred of the 19 million plus sites it listed, I found lots of other discouraging economic news for women—all involving “38 percent”:
  Oct 23, 2006
• Publication: Aging Gracefully
  Aging Gracefully gathers a collection of essays that highlight policy ideas for promoting greater retirement savings among Americans. The essays were written as part of the Retirement Security Project, which is dedicated to promoting common sense solutions to improve the retirement income prospects of millions of American workers. The project is supported by The Pew Charitable Trusts, in partnership with Georgetown University’s Public Policy Institute and the Brookings Institution.
  Aug 14, 2006
• Commentary: Inequality, Work, and Retirement: A Downward Spiral
  Many Americans today find their jobs demeaning, the likelihood of advancement almost nonexistent, and the financial rewards of work small. The result is a desire to stop working as soon as possible, even if it means living even smaller in retirement. While this is happening at all socioeconomic levels, the people making this decision usually are those at the bottom of the career ladder who have been affected the most by the changes in the nature of work and its rewards, changes that make it impossible for them to foresee a better future for themselves or their children.
  Jul 31, 2006
• Commentary: Working Retired: An Idea Whose Time May Never Come
  Some ten years ago, those of us trying to determine the effects of the coming retirement of the huge baby boom generation saw a future in which a majority of people would continue to work in some capacity after retirement. We believed that jobs would be available for these older workers because corporate America would recognize the need to hold on to them both for their specific skills and because of the lack of younger people to replace them when they retired. But what we thought would happen just has not—and recent reports indicate it may never come about.
  Apr 18, 2006
• Commentary: Hurricanes and Hypothermia: Collateral Damage for the Elderly
  Many older Americans are already juggling their budgets to pay for needed drugs, often choosing between eating properly and taking all their prescribed medications; adding the projected increases in heating costs into that equation will require even more dangerous decisionmaking.
  Sep 28, 2005
• Commentary: The Elderly in the Eye of the Storm
  Many of the most dramatic pictures and stories coming out of coverage of Hurricane Katrina involve the very old. Who can forget the photo of the elderly black woman sitting hunched over in a chair wrapped in an American flag or the frail elderly lying crammed on baggage carts at Louis Armstrong Airport as they are moved to the triage area of the emergency medical center set up there to take care of those lucky enough to have been evacuated from hospitals and nursing homes?
  Sep 15, 2005
• Commentary: The Second...Third...Fourth...Time Around
  As Labor Day draws near, the fact that many Americans workers are choosing to embark on second or third careers is the subject of media attention. It offers an upbeat way of looking at work in our nation. It builds on the pride America has always taken about being a place for new beginnings. After all, this nation was built by people who came here because they had little hope of finding economic opportunity or were seeking to escape oppression of various kinds in their native lands. Today, however, it is not just new arrivals who are starting all over again.
  Sep 1, 2005
• Commentary: Movin’ on Down
  When did we become a nation where if you somehow manage to “make it,” that is, rise to the middle and even upper middle class through hard work, you are in great danger of sliding back down the ladder of success as you grow older? A nation where you can devote yourself to achieving the American dream, but then wake up and find yourself in the middle of a nightmare in which you are losing most of what you struggled so hard to gain?
  Jul 2, 2005