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The article focuses on the increasing minimum income required to qualify for a typical mortgage on a median-priced home in the U.S., attributing this rise to factors such as increasing interest rates, high home prices, and low inventory.

Reports on the White House announcement that U.S. President George W. Bush will begin traveling in February 2005 to build support for his plan to overhaul Social Security. Bush's itinerary suggesting that he was especially intent on pressuring a handful of Democratic Senators to back his approach; Details of the president's two-day campaign-style swing to North Dakota, Montana, Nebraska, Arkansas and Florida.

Focuses on the questions posed in a report issued by the National Academy of Social Insurance on the proposal of U.S. President George W. Bush that individual investment accounts become an integral part of Social Security. Impact of the proposal on workers who become disabled before they retire; Political focus on how private accounts would be structured and financed.

The article reports on the modest unemployment claims each week in New York in 2014.

Several letters to the editor are presented in response to articles in previous issues including "The Meanest Season," by Frank Bruni in the June 4, 2013 issue, "An Opening to Strengthen Chemical Regulation," in the May 30, 2013 issue, and "From the Mouths of Babes," by Paul Krugman in the May 31, 2013 issue.

In February, after embarrassing himself by saying he was ''not concerned about the very poor,'' Mitt Romney explained that the government's safety net would take care of them, and he promised to repair any holes in the net. That promise didn't last very long. On Thursday, House Republicans approved, on a party-line vote, a disastrous new budget that would leave millions of struggling families desperate for food, shelter and health care -- and Mr. Romney has embraced it. The budget, developed by Representative Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, would cut $3.3 trillion from low-income programs over 10 years, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, even more than the $2.9 trillion in Mr. Ryan's first disastrous budget last year. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With unemployment hovering around 9 percent, many Americans are relying on government unemployment benefits to make ends meet. Now, a new, private option is available that can help replace, at least temporarily, more of the income forfeited when you lose your job. IncomeAssure is a supplemental unemployment insurance policy that, when combined with public unemployment insurance, can help temporarily replace up to half of your lost wages. Leslie Nylund, chief executive of the Assura Group of NY Ltd., which introduced the offering this summer, says she believes her firm is the only company currently offering such coverage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From G.D.P. to private-sector payrolls, from business surveys to new claims for unemployment insurance, key economic indicators suggest that the recovery may be sputtering. And it wasn't much of a recovery to start with. Employment has risen from its low point, but it has grown no faster than the adult population. And the plight of the unemployed continues to worsen: more than six million Americans have been out of work for six months or longer, and more than four million have been jobless for more than a year. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The number of people requesting unemployment benefits fell last week for the third time in four weeks and reached the lowest level in nearly three years, a government report said Thursday. The Labor Department said applications for unemployment benefits fell by 20,000, to a seasonally adjusted 368,000, the lowest level since late May 2008. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Another year without an increase in Social Security retirement and disability benefits has President Obama and Democrats pushing to give a $250 bonus to each of the program's 58 million recipients. The Social Security Administration said on Friday that inflation had been too low since the last increase in 2009 to warrant a raise for 2011. It will be only the second year without an increase since automatic adjustments for inflation were adopted in 1975. This year was the first. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

WASHINGTON Opening a new front in its pressure campaign against Tehran, the Obama administration on Wednesday put eight Iranian officials on a blacklist for their role in the bloody suppression of anti-government activists after the disputed Iranian election last year. The United States, citing human-rights abuses for the first time as a basis for sanctions, will freeze foreign assets and deny visas to eight people, among them the commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the minister of welfare and social security, and several intelligence officials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social Security should invest in collateralized debt obligations backed by subprime mort ... oops, that doesn't work. Actually, Social Security is not that bad off. It is in much better shape than state and local pensions or Medicare. In fact, it is in better shape than the rest of the federal budget, which has been borrowing the surplus that Social Security accumulated over many years and is now fretting because it will soon have to pay the money back. Got that? I didn't think so. Let's try again. Before ''fixing'' Social Security, we should think about what it is that we want to cure. The actuarial problem in Social Security is that, instead of each generation supporting itself, as in a normal pension system, in Social Security each generation supports its elders. Therefore, any generation has the power to bankrupt the system simply by failing to adhere to the Biblical injunction to ''go forth and multiply.'' If we baby boomers would have had no children, Social Security would be over, although our savings on education would be considerable. Seriously, though, we did have too few kids. So the system needs tinkering -- and it will always need tinkering as demographic patterns shift from one decade to the next. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How do we maintain Social Security in the fairest way? Consider progressive indexing, which would preserve benefits for the bottom third of wage earners who rely on the program for almost all of their retirement income, but recalculate the benefits of higher-paid workers who have other sources of retirement income -- including 401(k)s and IRAs -- that are tax-subsidized by the federal government. To calculate initial benefits at retirement, Social Security currently takes workers' average career earnings and increases them by the rate at which average wages rose during their careers, a mechanism called wage indexing. Once workers start receiving benefits, they are increased annually by the amount that consumer prices rose in the prior year, called price indexing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Do you want to know how much LeBron James pays in Social Security taxes each year? Bill Gates? Oprah? Your dermatologist? $6,622. That's the maximum anyone pays in Social Security taxes, because earnings above $106,800 are not taxed. By slowly raising the cap -- say, 2 percent each year, though increasing it faster would raise more revenue -- so that it eventually covered 90 percent of all income, we could eliminate roughly a third of Social Security's projected shortfall. Next year, people like Mr. James would pay slightly more than they pay now while eventually receiving slightly higher benefits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social Security, now celebrating its 75th birthday, is receiving mixed diagnoses. Some analysts think the program is on solid fiscal ground for decades to come, while others fear that the impending retirement of the baby boom generation precipitates a crisis. In either case, it is always worth considering innovations to make the program more efficient and equitable. The Op-Ed page editors asked six experts to recommend specific fixes that could be part of a comprehensive reform package for the nation's largest social insurance program. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- The number of workers filing new claims for jobless benefits unexpectedly rose last week to the highest level in close to six months, the latest evidence the economy's recovery was faltering. The increase in jobless claims added to worries in the stock market, which has failed to make any gains this year. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Initial requests for jobless benefits rose last week to the highest level since April, a sign that hiring remained weak and that some companies were still cutting workers. The Labor Department said Thursday that new claims for unemployment insurance rose by 19,000, to a seasonally adjusted 479,000. Analysts had expected a small drop. Claims have risen twice in the last three weeks. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

For a couple of years, it was the love that dared not speak his name. In 2008, Republican candidates hardly ever mentioned the president still sitting in the White House. After the election, the G.O.P. did its best to shout down all talk about how we got into the mess we're in, insisting that we needed to look forward, not back. And many in the news media played along, acting as if it was somehow uncouth for Democrats even to mention the Bush era and its legacy. The truth, however, is that the only problem Republicans ever had with George W. Bush was his low approval rating. They always loved his policies and his governing style -- and they want them back. In recent weeks, G.O.P. leaders have come out for a complete return to the Bush agenda, including tax breaks for the rich and financial deregulation. They've even resurrected the plan to cut future Social Security benefits. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

So the Bunning blockade is over. For days, Senator Jim Bunning of Kentucky exploited Senate rules to block a one-month extension of unemployment benefits. In the end, he gave in, although not soon enough to prevent an interruption of payments to around 100,000 workers. But while the blockade is over, its lessons remain. Some of those lessons involve the spectacular dysfunctionality of the Senate. What I want to focus on right now, however, is the incredible gap that has opened up between the parties. Today, Democrats and Republicans live in different universes, both intellectually and morally. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

WASHINGTON -- The United States Department of Transportation said it furloughed 2,000 workers on Monday as a politically charged impasse over unemployment benefits interrupted spending on a handful of federal programs and escalated tensions in Congress. With no quick resolution in sight, Democrats characterized the decision by one Republican to block the jobless aid and highway construction financing as an example of the practical consequences of regular opposition by Senate Republicans. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Businesses are slowly regaining the confidence to invest in equipment and machinery, according to a government report released on Thursday. At the same time, a separate report showed only moderate progress in the number of people filing for unemployment insurance, fanning concerns that the labor market may recover at a stubbornly slow pace. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The number of newly laid-off workers filing claims for unemployment benefits declined unexpectedly last week, another indication that the job market may be healing as the economy slowly recovers. The Labor Department said Thursday that new claims for unemployment insurance fell by 22,000 to a seasonally adjusted 432,000, the lowest since July 2008. That was much better than the rise to 460,000 that Wall Street economists had expected. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

New claims for unemployment insurance fell more than expected last week, offering some hopeful signs for the job market. Still, many analysts worry the nation could be in for a jobless recovery as the unemployment rate rises despite some overall economic growth. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The government said Thursday that the number of people claiming jobless benefits for the first time dropped slightly last week, evidence that the labor market remained weak even as the economy is recovering. The Labor Department said that its tally of newly laid-off workers seeking unemployment insurance fell by 1,000 to a seasonally-adjusted 530,000 last week. Analysts expected a steeper drop to 521,000. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Tens of thousands of New Yorkers have had the unfortunate distinction of collecting unemployment benefits longer than anyone in the state's history. But last week, state officials began warning the long-term unemployed that Congress has not approved another extension of unemployment insurance payments. That lapse will leave about 37,000 residents of the state, like Robert C. Brannigan, without benefits this week, and will force others to contemplate applying for food stamps or other forms of welfare that they had never considered. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The number of new claims for jobless benefits fell last week to the lowest level since early January. The Labor Department said on Thursday that first-time claims for unemployment insurance dropped last week to a seasonally adjusted 521,000, from the previous week's upwardly revised total of 554,000. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A federal judge in Oakland has tentatively approved a settlement requiring the government to pay more than $500 million to tens of thousands of people wrongly barred from receiving Social Security payments. The Social Security Administration over the past several years withheld benefit checks from recipients found to have outstanding arrest warrants, saying it was complying with a 1996 law requiring that payments be stopped to recipients ''fleeing to avoid prosecution'' of a felony. A class-action lawsuit filed last year asserted that the policy had been wrongly applied. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

PRESSING COSTCO On Food Stamps [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The number of Americans filing initial claims for jobless benefits rose last week, while the total number of people continuing to receive benefits set a record high, the government said Thursday. The Labor Department reported that first-time requests for unemployment insurance increased to 654,000 from the previous week's upwardly revised figure of 645,000, above analysts' expectations. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

There is a strong case to be made for a short, sharp stimulus package to restrain the collapse of the American economy. This would involve big, simple programs with immediate impact -- a temporary cut in the payroll tax, big aid to the states, expanded unemployment insurance and food stamps. There's also a very strong case to be made for long-term government reform. America could fundamentally rethink its infrastructure policies -- create a new model adapted to new modes of community-building. It could fundamentally rethink human capital policies -- create a lifelong menu of learning options, from pre-K programs to service opportunities for the elderly. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

WASHINGTON -- The number of workers filing new claims for jobless benefits jumped by 30,000 to a 26-year peak last week, government data on Wednesday showed, as the country's year-long recession continued to chill the labor market. Initial claims for state unemployment insurance benefits rose to a seasonally adjusted 586,000 in the week ended Dec 20 from a revised 556,000 the prior week, the Labor Department said. It was the highest since the week ending Nov. 27, 1982. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

When Americans lose their jobs, as is happening in growing numbers, many also lose health insurance. But even for employed people with medical coverage, an illness can mean not only a sharp break with the life they have known, but also financial disaster. Employment-based insurance frequently does not sustain someone through the entirety of a serious medical ordeal. Often, a health crisis will ultimately mean the loss of a job, and with it insurance. Medicaid and Social Security disability provide a vital, if minimal, safety net, but qualifying for them can take time, while medical bills pile up, leading to trouble paying the rent, utility bills and other expenses. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The owners of the two Saigon Grill restaurants in Manhattan were arrested Wednesday on more than 400 criminal charges, including violating minimum-wage laws, falsifying business records and defrauding the state's unemployment insurance system. Simon and Michelle Nget, the owners of the popular pan-Asian restaurants, pleaded not guilty to those charges as well as to charges of demanding illegal payments from their deliverymen, tampering with witnesses and creating fraudulent records to cover up their actions. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Not so long ago, corporate giants with names like PanAm, ITT and Montgomery Ward roamed the earth. They faded and were replaced by new companies with names like Microsoft, Southwest Airlines and Target. The U.S. became famous for this pattern of decay and new growth. Over time, American government built a bigger safety net so workers could survive the vicissitudes of this creative destruction -- with unemployment insurance and soon, one hopes, health care security. But the government has generally not interfered in the dynamic process itself, which is the source of the country's prosperity. But this, apparently, is about to change. Democrats from Barack Obama to Nancy Pelosi want to grant immortality to General Motors, Chrysler and Ford. They have decided to follow an earlier $25 billion loan with a $50 billion bailout, which would inevitably be followed by more billions later, because if these companies are not permitted to go bankrupt now, they never will be. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

For decades, opposition to new offshore oil drilling has been a core principle of Congressional Democrats, ranking in the party pantheon somewhere just below protecting Social Security and increasing the minimum wage. But a concerted Republican assault over domestic oil production and the threat of political backlash from financially pressed motorists have Democrats poised to embrace a fundamental shift in energy policy. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

If you have just retired or are about to retire, your timing could not be worse. Leaving the work force just as markets stumble can do real damage to retirement savings. Your nest egg has shrunk just as you need to start withdrawing money from it; you are essentially locking in your losses. (And at the moment, sinking home values make matters even worse.) [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The House took another step on Thursday in a running political fight over unemployment insurance by ignoring a veto threat from President Bush and easily approving an extension of benefits for idle workers whose aid is running out. Less than a day after coming up just short in a vote on the same measure, the House approved granting an extra 13 weeks of unemployment benefits nationwide beyond the standard 26 weeks; the vote was 274 to 137, the minimum margin needed to override a veto. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article presents the author's opinion on the issue of income inequality in the U.S. The top 1 percent of all income earners in the U.S. earn roughly 20 percent of the total income and the top 5 percent of wealth holders have roughly 50 percent of all the wealth in the U.S. Moreover, the top 1 percent of wealth holders have close to one-third of all the wealth in the country.

Reports on the employment condition in Europe with emphasis on the unemployment benefits offered by various governments such as in Denmark, Germany and France.

Reports on the decline in the number of people who receive unemployment benefits in the U.S.

Reports on the proposition of U.S. President George W. Bush to add investment accounts for Social Security following the decline of Dow Jones industrial market.

Reports on public appearances made by President George W. Bush in which he pushed for his Social Security reform. Changing of some of his language to attempt to win over crowds; His vow to keep hammering the message home; Presentation of the President; Protests against the plan by various groups and agencies; Other visits planned across the country in an attempt to sell the idea to the public; Question which is if the President will accept a compromise on his plan.

Provides an analysis of the Social Security system in the United States and how the proposal to change it by U.S. President George W. Bush will impact the economy. Assertion by Bush that workers should be allowed to divert some of their Social Security payments to investment accounts; Way that this change would affect a person's benefits later in life; How Bush's plan could create large new disparities across generations and among retirees; Comparison of benefits with the current plan and Bush's plan; Decrease in benefits with Bush's plan.

Discusses the author's suggestion on how to fix the Social Security problem using KidSave, a kind of personal account backed by the former Nebraska Senator Bob Kerrey in the U.S. Concept of KidSave; Other name of KidSave; Prevalence of KidSave in the Social Security in the country.

Follows President George W. Bush as he takes his campaign to overhaul Social Security to the citizens of America. His warning to youth in Montana that the system will not be able to offer them retirement benefits unless something is done; Gestures of bipartisanship during his travels in an effort to ease Democratic opposition to his plan; Response from the lawmakers to his proposal as he laid it out in the State of the Union address which has not been comforting from either side of the aisle; Details of the speeches and stops on the trip.

Stock market down-turns, layoffs and shrunken pensions in the U.S. have ruined many a retirement plan, and people must also consider the likelihood of longer life spans and the possibility that Social Security and Medicare may fail to provide the money they are expecting. By some indications, the pressure is mounting as the promise of hefty inheritances appear to be dwindling. A study conducted in 2003, found that by 2001, the median value of inheritances going to baby boomers was U.S. $47, 000.

Analyzes the long-term challenge to Medicare and Social Security in the U.S. Magnitude of the problems ahead, in light of today's budget deficits; Looming shortfalls for the two retirement programs; Gap between promises of the President George W. Bush administration under current law and revenues expected over the next 75 years; Warnings of analysts; Scope and severity of the problem; How the government is borrowing billions yearly from the two trust funds to finance its operating deficits; Suggestion that the problems of the entitlement programs are understated; Overview; Views of experts; Outlook.

Editorial. Focuses on the significance of an approval by the U.S. Congress of an extension of unemployment benefits that could help people weather the economic downturn as of January 2003.

Focuses on the end of unemployment insurance benefits for some state residents in New York under a federal extension program in December 2002.

Talks about the unemployment insurance system implemented in Chile as of June 2002.