Social Security: Are There Other Ways to Fix It?

???Direct investment Allowing Social Security to invest its assets directly in stocks, last proposed under President Clinton, could improve the system's meager returns. But it is risky and ripe for abuse. Another plan, proposed by Boston University professor Laurence Kotlikoff, would create private accounts but centralize the investing. Everyone would be invested in the same thing: a global, market-weighted index fund run by the government, not Wall Street. Because the fund would track the market, the risks of making poor investment choices would be minimized. --J.T.