Bloomberg.com: Top Worldwide

Bloomberg.com: Top Worldwide

"Political Issue

`The Fed chairman has put out a warning that the markets ignore at their peril,'' said Christopher Rupkey, senior financial economist at Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi in New York. `The greying of America could force interest rates up substantially with the Fed powerless to respond.'

Social Security is a political issue in the U.S. during this presidential election year. In his acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention in Boston July 29, nominee John Kerry suggested he would consider tax increases to close the funding gap. `As president, I will not privatize Social Security. I will not cut benefits,' he said.

President George W. Bush, in Las Cruces, New Mexico, yesterday, said that younger workers should be `concerned' about the fiscal stability of Social Security, and again pitched private retirement savings. `I believe younger workers ought to be able to own a personal retirement account they call their own, so they can pass it on from one generation to the next,' he said."