The Social Security Tsunami

SS and the Beach – Bruce Krasting

Social Security (SS) will race through another milestone in October. For the first time in its history, SS  will pay out more than $65 billion in a single month.

 

Other than the fact that this is an incredibly big number, there is nothing eye-opening about the payout. SS missed hitting the $65b milestone by a fraction in September. In November, it will be higher again. $70b will be hit by December 2013. The ladder to higher payouts never stops.

$65b is a very big number:

-The monthly SS payout is bigger than the market cap of some well know companies, including: Amex, 3M, US Bankcorp, Amgen, eBay and  Caterpillar. Goldman Sachs is worth a measly $54b. SS could buy the whole thing with just three-weeks worth of payout.

-The annual cost for SS is greater than the ridiculous monster market cap for Apple. If SS used its muscle to buy big cap stocks, it could buy up all of the shares of Microsoft, Wal-Mart and Google in less than a year.

And probably become considerably more profitable than it is today.