Today’s Always-Finding-the-Downside Award Goes to Reuters!

For this headline:

Low Inflation Rate Bites Millions of Retirees

Dear Reuters, 1980 just called and they want to thank you for the laugh. Seriously, people. High inflation, for people new to earth, is terrible for retirees. The headline ought to read: “High Inflation No Longer Bites Millions of Retirees.” Inflation punishes savings. Our low inflation rate is a major victory for the economy over the past 30 years.

The story says that inflation punishes seniors because Social Security benefits aren’t going to be increased:

Social Security benefits will not automatically increase next year for 58 million Americans because of the low U.S. inflation rate, the Social Security Administration announced on Friday.

This is the second year in a row that retirees and millions of disabled workers and survivors of deceased workers will not receive an automatic cost of living adjustment.

It comes at a time when retirees’ savings — often their only other source of income — are earning poor returns because of low interest rates.

The average Social Security benefit is around $14,000 and experts say about one-third of retirees rely on the payouts from the government-run program for more than 90 percent of their income.

How exactly is anyone being punished?

Posted by on October 15th, 2010 at 12:10 pm


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