cover for the extra deficit. But this would only happen until the government stops paying for the SS benefits. Second, you assume the amount of total stocks outstanding will not change. But I think if SS were privatized along the lines described in your book, companies are probably going to issue extra shares and reinvest the money into the economy. So I think your critique that it is all a wash at the macro level might only hold in the very short run. the program is the gov stops taxing you 100 and you buy stocks with it. that means there's 100 more in reserve accounts that otherwise would have been debited for tax payment. so the tsy offers 100 more in tsy secs than otherwise the next year the same happens etc. so the tsy issues as many more tsy secs as whatever the tax would have been otherwise. issuing doesn't increase market share. market share is measured in sales as a % of total sales in that market yes, stocks might rise some and there might be some wealth effect, but with earnings not rising from this program i wouldn't bet on it happening from this program. MamMoTh Reply: September 21st, 2011 at 3:15 pm Warren, The program also stops government SS spending eventually. At that point, no more reserves will be added and no extra bonds will be necessary, so the amount of bonds will eventually decrease (all things equal). Once it is recognized that federal spending