Andrew Biggs: Create a Thrift Savings Plan for the Masses

<p><p>We’ve been exploring the state of retirement in the United States on <em>The Long View.</em> Last week, we talked with progressive labor economist <a href="https://www.morningstar.com/podcasts/the-long-view/110">Teresa Ghilarducci</a>. On this week’s episode, we chatted with Andrew Biggs, resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. He is more sanguine about the state of retirement in the U.S., though he is also in favor of some reforms. Andrew is an expert on Social Security reform, state and local government pensions, and public sector pay and benefits. Before joining AEI, Biggs was the principal deputy commissioner of the Social Security Administration, where he oversaw the agency's policy research efforts. In 2005, as an associate director of the White House National Economic Council, he worked on Social Security reform. In 2001, he joined the staff of then-President George W. Bush's Commission to Strengthen Social Security. He holds a bachelor's degree from Queen's University Belfast in Northern Ireland, master's degrees from Cambridge University and the University of London, and a Ph.D. from the London School of Economics.</p></p><p><p><strong>Background</strong></p></p><p><p><a href="https://www.aei.org/profile/andrew-g-biggs/" target="_blank">Bio</a></p></p><p><p><a href="https://www.aei.org/about/" target="_blank">The American Enterprise Institute</a></p></p><p><p><strong>State of Retirement in the U.S. </strong></p></p><p><p><a href="https://www.urban.org/research/data-methods/data-analysis/quantitative-data-analysis/microsimulation/model-income-near-term-mint" target="_blank">The Model of Income in the Near Term (MINT)</a></p></p><p><p><a href="https://crr.bc.edu/special-projects/national-retirement-risk-index/" target="_blank">National Retirement Risk Index</a></p></p><p><p>“<a href="https://www.cbo.gov/system/files/2019-04/55038-SSReplacementRates.pdf" target="_blank">Social Security Replacement Rates and Other Benefit Measures: An In-Depth Analysis</a>,” Congressional Budget Office,