This article illustrates replacement rates using four measures of preretirement earnings.

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.

Japanese are disappearing in slow motion and so far, there is no rescue plan.

The U.S. military faces a readiness crisis - one confronting not just its people and end-strength cuts - but pushing equipment to the breaking point. Across all services, long-standing readiness problems are worsening and breakdowns are happening more frequently.

In less than twenty-five years, government “affordable housing” and other housing policies have turned a healthy market into a financial ruin. Until Fannie and Freddie’s market dominance and the government’s role in the housing finance system are substantially reduced or eliminated, the United States will continue to have an inferior and unstable housing market.

The ex-ante best U.S. Social Security replacement rate structure is fairly "flat."

Repealing the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act will not be enough, for a simple reason: Although Obamacare would worsen many of the problems with our system of health-care financing, that system clearly does call out for serious reform.

Who you compare yourself with says a lot about who you want to be. A common talking point from the Left regarding the generosity of Social Security benefits isn't entirely honest, but more important, it's indicative of the broader views of American liberals.