In a speech on 'Social security reform and demographic reality' given on 19 October, William Poole of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis told Delta State University demographic change in the United States and elsewhere in the world presents enormous challenges. In much of the world, the combination of increased life expectancy and a reduced birth rate has created a situation in which the population is becoming unbalanced in its age distribution, he said.

"We know this problem is right ahead of