Personal Yen Accounts
In a New York Times Op/Ed column, "Honey, I Shunk the Dollar", Thomas L. Friedman describes how
The dollar is falling! The dollar is falling! But the Bush team has basically told the world that unless the markets make the falling dollar into a full-blown New York Stock Exchange crisis and trade war, it is not going to raise taxes, cut spending or reduce oil consumption in ways that could really shrink our budget and trade deficits and reverse the dollar's slide.
Boy, do I have a proposal!
Please consider these facts:
- The dollar is falling; therefore
- Foreign currencies are rising; not to mention that
- There are too many retirees for Social Security.
I think the answer should be obvious by now: Foreign-Currency Privatization, or what we might think of as "Personal Yen Accounts".
Allowing people to "invest" a portion of their social-security dollars in foreign currencies not only will build a better retirement for many Americans, it will strengthen the US by demonstrating our faith in global free-market economies at the same time that it helps keep the price of manufactured goods down — seniors live on a fixed income! — by moving all those expensive manufacturing jobs overseas where people still love democracy and are willing to work for less to pay for it.
Personal Yen Accounts: Making Cents for America's Retirees.