As anxiety mounts over the projected 2032 depletion of the Social Security Old-Age and Survivors Insurance (OASI) Trust Fund, a viral online trend is urging Americans to claim their retirement benefits as early as age 62.

But personal finance expert and Ramsey Solutions personality George Kamel is pushing back on the internet hysteria, telling Fox News Digital that the panic mirrors the “toilet paper rush during COVID,” and warning that filing early out of fear locks in a permanent “pay cut, not freedom.”

“These headlines are classic fearmongering, and they are not based in reality. There’s a lot of context left out,” Kamel said. “When you see, ‘Depletion 2032 [for] Social Security,’ it’s like the toilet paper rush during COVID. Everyone’s like, ‘I gotta go to the store and let’s clear the shelves, there’s not gonna be any left for me.’”

“The truth is, that fund was surplus from pre-funding for the baby boomer generation and to smooth out bumps along the way. So this does not mean Social Security is going to go away. A worst-case scenario is a 22% cut in monthly benefits. So that’s a far cry from it going to zero and bankrupting,” he continued.

OPINION: AMERICAN’S RETIREMENT SYSTEM IS BROKEN. TRUMP MAY HAVE FOUND A BOLD FIX

After the Social Security Administration released its 2026 Trustees Report — which confirmed that the federal retirement safety net is less than seven years away from reserve depletion — financial advisor and author Suze Orman called early claiming “bad advice,” warning that it will lock retirees into a permanent 30% reduction in monthly benefits that cannot be undone.

Kamel agreed with the emotional danger of claiming Social Security early, but he critiqued the rigid “always-wait” rule.

“She’s right that there is a lot of emotion here, and fear is a bad reason to go grab it at 62. Now, where we might disagree is that you should always wait… There’s a lot of factors that come into play of deciding when to take Social Security. And it really depends on your life, your health, your income, your family situation,” he explained.

“You’re better off talking to a doctor than looking at a government chart at average life expectancies to make this choice,” he added. “So there is no magic age, it’s not always 62, it’s not always 70. That’s a headline, not a plan.”

Breaking down the math even further, Kamel argued that the government treats your full retirement age at 67 as the 100% baseline benefit. Claiming five years early, at 62, forces you to accept a permanent 30% pay cut for the rest of your life. However, if you delay claiming until age 70, the system rewards your patience with a permanent 24% increase in benefits.

“The truth is, if you need to take it at 62, you probably aren’t doing great with your retirement overall. And if you can wait till 70, you likely didn’t really need it in the first place. So it’s kind of a catch-22 even making this decision, but it is personal,” he said. “And the math assumes that $1 at 95 is the same as $1 at 65, and that you live long enough. And that’s just not the case.”

“I’m not a fan of relying on a government program to fund your life forever. That’s a scary thought,” Kamel added. “And so early claiming is not control. It’s really just a 30% smaller check forever. So it’s a pay cut, it’s not freedom.”

“You reap what you sow. That’s the fact of the matter. So if you plant corn, you’re gonna have some corn at the end of this road. And if you don’t plant anything, don’t be surprised when you’re trying to make it off of a Social Security check.”

– George Kamel

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As the 2032 insolvency deadline approaches, many Americans assume a worst-case scenario is inevitable if gridlock continues in Washington. But Kamel said the panic overlooks how the federal government has handled similar fiscal cliffs in the past. Rather than letting the system go bankrupt, he predicts Capitol Hill will pull from its old playbook.

“Seventy million Americans rely on a Social Security payment coming in. And so when you think about that… they’re gonna vote with their wallet. So the chances of any politician deciding to cut this down is going to cost them big time,” he said. “What will likely happen is what happened in 1983… The trust fund is running out and they made several small tweaks, not one sweeping change, in order to help this out.”

“I think the same thing will be true – they might adjust the cost of living adjustment. They might change the full retirement age from 67 to 68 or 69. They might increase the payroll taxes from 6.2% to 6.5%. And so these incremental changes can help it. I don’t see a world where, in 2032, we’re all going, ‘Where’s our money? We’re all gonna retire broke.’”

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Ultimately, Kamel emphasizes that true financial peace doesn’t come from trying to outsmart a shifting government timeline. Instead of obsessing over what Washington will do to the safety net, he argued that the smartest move Americans can make is to shift their focus entirely to what they can control in their own households.

“You are your best shot at a great retirement. It’s not the government’s job, it’s not Washington’s job, it’s not a headline, it’s not a trust fund date. You control the controllables, and one of those things is creating your own nest egg… There is hope out there. But it’s not in the hands of [the] White House, it’s in yours.”

READ MORE FROM FOX BUSINESS

More than 200 economists, tech bosses and researchers from across the globe have put their names on a short, sharply worded open letter cautioning that artificial intelligence is on track to shake up the job market in a big way, and that governments are lagging behind. Organised by the Stanford Digital Economy Lab, the letter is titled “We Must Act Now,” with the subtitle “A Statement on AI’s Transformation of the Economy.” It runs to just 88 words, and every one of them appears to have been chosen with care.

Also Read: US job cuts: Moody’s chief economist Mark Zandi sees ‘big warning’ signs in June data. Here’s why he’s worried about the labour market

That brevity is exactly what makes the letter stand out. Getting rival camps, the people building AI and the economists who study what AI might break, to agree on anything is rare. Getting them to agree in under 100 words is rarer still. That’s the real story here: not just what the letter says, but who is standing behind it.

The Guest List Reads Like A Tech-Economics Power Summit

Scroll through the signatories and a few names jump out immediately. Former Google chief Eric Schmidt is on there. So is LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman. Three Nobel laureates — Joseph Stiglitz, Daron Acemoglu and Simon Johnson — have added their signatures too. From inside the AI industry itself come Google AI lead Jeff Dean, Anthropic co-founder Jack Clark and OpenAI’s finance chief Sarah Friar. Even the so-called “Godfathers of AI,” Yoshua Bengio and Yann LeCun, along with venture capitalist Vinod Khosla, are named.

Put simply, this isn’t a letter from AI skeptics on the outside looking in. Several of the people who signed it are the very ones building the technology being warned about.

So What Does The Letter Actually Say?

Strip away the drama, and the message is fairly simple: AI is going to get a lot more powerful over the next decade, and if policymakers don’t get moving, a lot of people could lose their jobs. Here is the letter, word for word:
‘We Must Act Now’
A Statement on AI’s Transformation of the Economy
AI may become radically more powerful over the next 10 years.

This could drive an unprecedented transformation of our economy, larger than the Industrial Revolution, but unfolding over a vastly shorter time frame. It could bring risks, including large-scale job displacement, as well as opportunities such as major gains in living standards.

Economists, policymakers and technology leaders must act now to understand the economics of transformative AI and to build the incentives, guardrails, and institutions needed to steer AI in a direction that complements humans and benefits society.

Not Everyone Agrees On How Bad It’ll Get

The letter lands at a moment when opinions on AI and jobs are all over the map. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei has gone further than most, predicting that AI could wipe out as much as half of all entry-level white-collar jobs within five years. Not everyone shares that level of alarm, many economists and technologists land somewhere in the middle, arguing that AI is more likely to reshape jobs than erase them completely.

Either way, the message from this unusually broad coalition of signatories is the same: the clock is running, and the guardrails aren’t built yet.

Shares of Biocon jumped more than 6% on Tuesday, on track to record the sharpest single day surge in 18 months, as Viatris-owned Mylan is set to sell up to 9.2 crore shares worth up to Rs 3,481 crore, exiting the Indian drugmaker.

Biocon shares jumped more than 6% to trade at Rs 436.15 apiece on Tuesday. If the stock manages to hold on to the gains till the end of the session, then today would mark its best day since January, 2025.

Mylan, which is part of global healthcare company Viatris, planned to sell the stake which represents 5.64% of Biocon’s outstanding shares, according to a term sheet as per a Reuters report. The floor price of the offer was fixed at Rs 378.50 per share, implying a discount of nearly 8% to Biocon’s previous closing price of Rs 410.95 per share. The report added that Citigroup Global Markets India and Jefferies India were the joint bookrunners and brokers for the deal.

Meanwhile, around 4.4 crore shares, or 2.7% equity, changed hands in a block deal in the early trading hours, followed by another block deal that saw 4.6 crore shares change hands, ET Now reported. This brings the total number of shares which were traded in block deals to nearly 9 crore, nearly matching what Mylan was expected to sell, although the seller in the block deals that took place in the morning is yet to be ascertained.

Also Read | Mylan to sell up to $363 million stake in India’s Biocon, term sheet shows

Biocon shareholding pattern

Mylan held 5.64% stake in Biocon at the end of the financial year 2026, according to data on the company’s shareholding pattern available on NSE. Promoter Kiran Mazumdar Shaw held around 30% stake, while Glentec International held around 15% stake.

Around 39 mutual funds held over 15% stake in the company, while insurance companies held more than 6% stake. Nearly 3.74 lakh retail shareholders meanwhile owned 6% stake in the company, as of March 31, 2026.

Biocon share price

Biocon shares sharply jumped more than 6% on Tuesday to trade at Rs 436.15 apiece on NSE, the highest level seen since May 29 this year. The shares of the company have jumped around 7% in one week and 4% in one month.
The shares of the drugmaker have gained around 12% in 2026 so far. In the longer term, Biocon shares have delivered 14% returns over one year, 66% returns over three years and 9% returns over five years.Also Read | Sensex falls 500 points, Nifty slips below 24,100 as US-Iran conflict escalates. What lies ahead?

(Disclaimer: Recommendations, suggestions, views and opinions given by the experts are their own. These do not represent the views of The Economic Times)

Historic shopping destination set to move to former TJ Hughes site

Plans for how the new Birkenhead Market in the Pyramids Shopping Centre could look, have been submitted to Wirral Council. The historic 19th century market is set to move to the former TJ Hughes store.

After a period of uncertainty surrounding the market’s future location, the council this week announced that work at the TJ Hughes site is set to begin. Some market traders are now preparing to make the move over to the new site, which is expected to take place before the end of the year.

A planning application has been launched, on behalf of the council, for changes to the exterior of the former TJ Hughes site. Plans explain the main entrance to the new market will be from the north, on Borough Pavement, where a new glazed sliding double door is set to be introduced. The new-look entrance will have a “neutral and contemporary material palette.”

A second entrance is expected to be formed in between the main entrance and the CEX unit next door. Plans say the shopfront with be ‘upgraded’ in the process of the works.

Planning permission is only sought for the external changes to the site. Submitted plans explain the internal alterations do not require planning permission.

Celebrating the news that work is set to begin on the new market, the leader of Wirral Council, Cllr Paula Basnett said: “This marks the start of an exciting new chapter for Birkenhead Market, and for the town centre as a whole. A huge amount of work has been going on behind the scenes to get to this stage. I’m incredibly pleased that people will soon start to see a real transformation getting underway at the former TJ Hughes site to create the town’s new market.

“Birkenhead Market’s greatest strength has always been the people who make it what it is, and despite the challenges of recent years our traders have continued to serve customers and champion the market. Their partnership and commitment has been instrumental in bringing us to this point and will continue to be vital as we create a market fit for the future. This is fantastic for Birkenhead, for traders and for local people, and will be placing the Market at the heart of the town centre where it should be.”

To find all the planning applications, traffic diversions, road layout changes, alcohol licence applications and more in your community, visit the Public Notices Portal.

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