Update: Social Security Cost of Living Adjustment Is 2.0 Percent
This morning, the Social Security Administration announced a cost of living adjustment for 2018 of 2.0 percent. The figure was in our projected range of 1.7 to 2.1 percent, discussed in a more detailed report released earlier this week.
While these cost of living adjustments are based on an automatic formula using the CPI-W price index, and involve no human discretion, there may be a debate on the horizon about changing the system. President Trump’s tax plan hints at using the lower chained CPI to index tax brackets, rather than the current CPI-U. Some observers have speculated that this move would pave the way to also using the lower index for annual social security adjustments.
Max Gulker
Max Gulker is a former Senior Research Fellow at the American Institute for Economic Research. He is currently a Senior Fellow with the Reason Foundation. At AIER his research focused on two main areas: policy and technology. On the policy side, Gulker looked at how issues like poverty and access to education can be addressed with voluntary, decentralized approaches that don’t interfere with free markets. On technology, Gulker was interested in emerging fields like blockchain and cryptocurrencies, competitive issues raised by tech giants such as Facebook and Google, and the sharing economy.
Gulker frequently appears at conferences, on podcasts, and on television. Gulker holds a PhD in economics from Stanford University and a BA in economics from the University of Michigan. Prior to AIER, Max spent time in the private sector, consulting with large technology and financial firms on antitrust and other litigation. Follow @maxg_econ.
