This book by Alan Viard and Robert Carroll proposes to completely replace the income tax system with a progressive consumption tax.

Ever since its founding in 1948, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea has maintained an aggressive and bellicose international security posture. Today, fully two decades after the end of the Cold War, North Korea's external defense and security policies look arguably more extreme and anomalous than ever.

Whereas public debt levels in many major industrialized countries will soon exceed 100 percent of GDP, those in the major emerging market economies generally range from 40 to 50 percent of GDP.

The fierce battle over reform was based on the perception that Americans did not get good value for their money. That perception is wrong.

A profound change is occurring in the global economy, as the emerging market economies enjoy much more rapid growth and relatively much sounder public finances than the industrial countries, which will place increasing global economic importance on the emerging economies.

Everybody who pays attention to these sorts of things knows Muslim societies are almost uniquely immune to the forces that have been driving down fertility rates on every continent for decades. But everybody, it seems, fell asleep before the final act.

Financial markets around the world experienced tumultuous swings following Standard & Poor's first-ever downgrade of the U.S. credit rating on Aug. 5. An ongoing European debt crisis and forecasts for sluggish economic growth worldwide are also rattling investors.

Americans have the highest health spending on the planet. Why? Because they can afford to do so. What few people realize is that the U.S. has increased its standard of living vis-à-vis its biggest competitors despite rising health expenditures (figure 1.6c).