A big part of Social Security Defender will be posts explaining various aspects of Social Security finance that should ultimately resemble a expanded course syllabus. and as I post them to the main page they will be indexed here. I did something similar when I started my own personal blog in November 2004 and students who want to get a jump on the 'course' might well start with those archives: The Bruce Web: Nov 2004. Obviously the economic situation in Nov 2010 is much bleaker than it was in Nov 2004 but the pieces hold up well regardless, Social Security being much more robust in the face of downturn than one would think.
And in May 2008 I was invited to post an expanded version on econoblog Angry Bear, which ended up as a preliminary set of 44 posts. Those posts and subsequent ones on AB were indexed back on my personal site on the following page: Angry Bear Social Security Series.
Social Security 101 as it develops will mostly be updated versions of many of the posts from the Nov 2004 and May 2008 posts, hopefully stripped of some of the ad homs that creep into a typical political blog, this part of the course is supposed to be more technocratic than personality driven. That will be reserved for some separate series.
FDR signing the 1935 SS Act (click image for person key)
