Under the intermediate assumptions of the program's trustees, the number of beneficiaries will have roughly doubled by 2030, and the ratio of covered workers to beneficiaries will be down to about 2. The pressures on the budget from this dramatic demographic change will be exacerbated by those stemming from the anticipated steep upward trend in spending per Medicare beneficiary.
The main criticism against making central banks autonomous entities is not so much based on economic but rather on political arguments: it is that turning over decisions regarding interest rates, exchange rates, the efficiency of the financial system and other monetary matters to a body of 3  BIS Review 34/2000  unelected officials is simply “undemocratic”.