But as I have argued previously, the system is ill-suited to address the unprecedented shift of population from the workforce to retirement that will start in 2008. Much attention has been focused on the forecasted exhaustion of the Social Security trust fund in 2041. But solving that problem will do little in itself to meet the imperative to boost our national saving.
The Federal Reserve tries to promote the conditions to foster job creation, but, overwhelmingly, it is businesses that create the jobs. About 85 percent of nonfarm employment is in the private sector, which traditionally is the source of a similarly large share of new jobs during economic expansions.