Profile: Bill Shipman

In the swell of discussion over social security reform in the US, one voice has consistently cut through the diversity of opinion with the honed edge of hard data. For William Shipman, data is a loyal ally. To critics of the reform – who caution that investing part or all of social security taxes in the markets is just too risky, that it would hurt low-wage workers, that money managers would take too big a cut – his pronouncement that the data he has gathered would disagree is a coup