Healthcare will overtake shelter within five years to become the single largest category of consumption. How has this happened?

Alan D. Viard, a resident scholar at AEI, reviews the budget outlook, the need for tax reform and the benefits of moving to a progressive consumption tax. He also discusses his forthcoming book, Progressive Consumption Taxation: The X Tax Revisited, which he coauthored with Robert Carroll of Ernst & Young. The book will be published by AEI Press in the Spring.

The current economic environment of low—virtually zero—interest rates has hit savers hard, but abruptly raising interest rates could harm economic growth and the housing market. Until the economy stabilizes and the Fed begins raising interest rates again, savers have few options: they can adjust their lifestyles, dip into their savings, or take on riskier investments such as gold and stocks.

Desmond Lachman's response to NationalJournal.com's "Economy Experts" blog on the implications of low saving on economic growth.

Resident fellow Desmond Lachman argues that the stimulus is not helping the economy recover.

Over the years, therehas been arise in economic inequality, growth in the middle class, low incomes are growing, and the progressive taxes keep thewealthy payinga large share of the tax burden.

It would not seem premature for policymakers to consider how they should respond should the U.S. economy stall again early next year.

With so many risks still overhanging the fragile U.S. economy, one hopes U.S. policymakers will not allow themselves to be carried away by the equity market's present state of euphoria.