I recently sat down with Joseph Stiglitz, a Nobel Prize-winning economist from Columbia University.
In this clip, Stiglitz talks about Americans' ability to save enough for retirement (or lacktherof), and what we can do about it.
Many readers won't agree with Stiglitz's views, but that's fine! Leave your rebuttals in the comment section below.
Here's what he had to say (transcript follows):
Stiglitz: I think that the country as a whole has to rethink this question of how do we run retirement programs? That I think that the view that the individual is better at managing risk than the government has been thrown into question. The view that individuals know the right amount to save has clearly been thrown into question. There are a variety of discussions about how we ought to address this. For instance, one could have a public program, where you could choose the degree of risk, the government would take portfolios, and you could have a pure government bond, maybe inflation government index bond, or one that's half a government inflation index bond and half a diversified equity portfolio.
So not put as much burden, but have the advantage of large returns to scale and portfolio management low transaction costs. And give individuals some choice, but realize and much more guidance than we do today.
