Dr. Ellen Frank is senior economic analyst with the Poverty Institute ("http://www.povertyinstitute.org/"). She holds a PhD. in economics from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and has taught economics at many colleges including Emmanuel, Wellesley, and Mount Holyoke. Her work has focused on how economic policies affect the prospects of ordinary households. She is a contributing editor to _Dollars and Sense_ magazine, a staff economist for the Center for Popular Economics, and has served on the Council on Monetary and Financial Policy at the Economic Policy Institute. Her book - _The Raw Deal: How Myths about Deficits, Inflation and Wealth Impoverish America_, published by Beacon Press in June 2004, argues for a return to strong pro-employment fiscal policy in the U.S.
In this interview with "Sounds of Dissent" host, John Grebe, Ellen Frank speaks about how the Bush administration has been spreading misinformation about the health of the U.S. Social Security system in order to justify privatizing that system.
See also Amy Goodman's interview with Princeton economics professor and _New York Times_ columnist Dr. Paul Krugman on this same subject which was done on her "Democracy Now!" program of 21 December 2004 ("http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/12/21/1535228" - streaming audio and video of the program segment, as well as a transcript of the interview, is available via links from that page).