Inflation Update

Mathematical clarification of the post below thanks to some correspondents. The purported "change" in Social Security's long-term actuarial deficit that's actually just a result of an apples-to-oranges comparison of 2004 and 2005 dollars is the infinite horizon deficit. $3.7 trillion in 2004 dollars is not, as I stated, $4 trillion in 2005 dollars. Rather, it's $3.83 trillion. So the 75 year deficit increased from $3.83 trillion in 2005 dollars in 2004 to $4 trillion in 2005 dollars in 2005, an increase of $170 billion and not, as The New York Times reported, an increase of $300 billion. But! There's a catch. The reason you see the $170 billion increase is that the 2004 75-year projection covers different years from the 2005 75-year projection. The 2005 report cans one surplus year (2004) and adds one deficit year (2080), leading to an increase. If you do a proper apples-to-apples comparison -- holding the years analyzed constant and using real dollar figures -- there's no increase.