Examines the theoretical rationale for wealth transfer taxes, discusses data on the distribution and accumulation of wealth, and reviews the experience of the United States and other countries under their existing systems. Because a substantial portion of the existing stock of wealth is...

Concentrates on the tendency under any health insurance system to overconsume health care services -- the problem of "moral hazard" that arises whenever people deciding on the use of some economic good do not bear the full economic cost of their decisions, and the administrative problems that...

Social Security is currently much in the news because it faces a projected funding gap, because of overall budget deficits, and because of doubts in some quarters about its design. Minor adjustments are sufficient to close the funding gap. Benefit cuts, even if considered desirable, would not...