The root question in the debate over the federal estate tax is whether America wants to encourage the hereditary transfer of wealth over many generations, creating, in effect, a permanent aristocracy.

India's problems do not stem from crony capitalism but crony socialism, the continued hold of an often corrupt and inept political class on economic decision making. Like most countries, India could do with greater competition and fewer barriers to entry for new businesses. But it's India's politicians and bureaucrats who need reining in, not its billionaires.

Many US municipalities and states are currently facing severe financial pressure. They have huge unfunded pension commitments, and recent forecasts of widespread defaults have resulted in a large sell-off of their bonds. This is not new. Financial history is full of instructive defaults by governments on their debt. Can these past crises teach us about what to do now?

Barring the unimaginable, just 30 years from now, Japan will be a far smaller and vastly more aged country than the one we know today. On the cusp of a monumental demographic transformation, Japan is gradually but relentlessly evolving into a society whose contours and workings are the stuff of science fiction.

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.

Paul Ryan wants the wealthy to give something back: the billions of dollars in government benefits, taxpayer subsidies and corporate welfare they receive each year and do not need.

Wealth, freedom, and equality of richest, freest, and most egalitarian societiescause the welfare state to unravel.

While the United States consumes a disproportionate share of global resources devoted to medical care, this global share is shrinking.