Social Security COLA ‘Click Bait’
Over the past couple of years, one of the most-clicked posts on NAPA-Net has been on a topic that is a bit of a head-scratcher. I’m speaking, of course, of the (now-incessantly tracked), monthly projections of the (potential) cost of living adjustment (COLA) for Social Security. It started back when inflation emerged as a real consumer concern—and it was spurred by the efforts of a group called the Senior Citizens League in publishing—EVERY MONTH—a projected cost of living adjustment (COLA) for Social Security. [i] And our coverage of those projections has been, and continues to be, one of the most clicked-on stories [ii] (ditto other publications, apparently). Like many, perhaps most, of you, I was initially intrigued by the reporting. Let’s face it, after a couple of decades of relative economic slumber, inflation has reared its ugly head in a way that reminds some of us of the days of our youth when inflation was an actual scary economic reality, rather tha...