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Thoughtful posts on Social Security from Bruce Krasting:
1.  Hello, We Lost Track of $25 Billion? - Bruce Krasting

2.  On SSTF - Let's Go Back to 1956 - I want to make a case that we are paying far more than we should be to borrow money from the Intergovernmental Accounts (“IG”).

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read this - Why Quantitative Easing is Likely to Trigger a Collapse of the U.S. Dollar - John P. Hussman, Ph.D. - has explanation - Hussman Funds
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(size of government)  Who Agreed To This? - Posted by Tom Lindmark - ... When you look at the two charts, it would seem that we have had a consensus for some time in this country about how big government should be and how much it should take from its citizens. The CBO chart clearly shows that someone has changed the equation. I just don’t remember the debate about all of this.  Do you? ... - But Then What
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Regulators Begin Process of Labeling the 'Systemically Important' - By VICTORIA MCGRANE And DAMIAN PALETTA -  The Dodd-Frank financial-regulation bill was sold as a way to prevent giant, octopus-like financial companies from ravaging the entire financial system if they fail.  Now that it is law, regulators must decide which companies will be classified as "systemically important." Observers expect them to move quickly to put GE Capital and American International Group Inc. in that category. - WSJ Business
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(buying time?) Illinois Teachers' Retirement System selling off $3B to cover benefits - By: Barry B. Burr - Illinois Teachers' Retirement System, Springfield, plans to sell $3 billion in investments, or about 10% of its $33.1 billion in assets, in the current fiscal year to pay pension benefits, according to Dave Urbanek, public information officer.  The system is the fifth Illinois statewide defined benefit plan to sell off investments this fiscal year to pay benefits. - Crain's Chicago Business

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(growth assumptions) Hoping for some change. State Pension’s $1 Trillion little problem. - BY NICK GOGERTY - ... The good people at the Pew trust have published their report of the Trillion dollar short fall in state pension funds. full report here.
The net story is a $1trillion shortfall. Woops! I love the smell of federal bailout in the morning ... - Designing Better Futures

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Fed Split on Move to Bolster Sluggish Economy - By JON HILSENRATH - The Aug. 10 meeting of top Federal Reserve officials was among the most contentious in Ben Bernanke's four-and-a-half year tenure as central bank chairman.  With the economic outlook unexpectedly darkening, the issue was a seemingly technical one: whether to alter the way the Fed manages its huge portfolio of securities.  But it had big implications: Doing so would plunge the Fed back into the markets and might be a prelude to a future easing of monetary policy, moves that divided the men and women atop the central bank. - WSJ Economy