Michael Albertus (Chicago) and Victor Menaldo (Washington): Gaming Democracy: Elite Dominance during Transition and the Prospects for Redistribution. Andreas Bergh (Lund) and Christian Bjornskov (Aarhus): Trust, Welfare States and Income Equality: What Causes What? Contrary to popular and academic belief, Adam Smith did not accept inequality as a necessary trade-off for a more prosperous economy. Miles Corak on how Joseph Fishkin’s book Bottlenecks explains why inequality lowers social mobility. James Galbraith on why policy, not capitalism, is to blame for the income divide. Why does inequality grow, and can we do something about it? Mapping a new economy: The geographer David Harvey says fixing inequality will take more than tinkering. Joseph Nevins on the will to wall: What is the work that walls do in a world of staggering inequality? The best of capitalism is over for rich countries — and for the poor ones it will be over by 2060. Filip Spagnoli on income inequality: What’s wrong with it, and what’s not. Tyler Cowen on how income inequality is not rising globally — it's falling: Though the income gap has widened in many individual nations, it has been shrinking globally for most of the last 20 years (and a response by Ryan Avent; a response by Matthew Yglesias; and more and more by Eduardo Porter). The newest trend among the world's ultra-rich — like, royalty-grade, private-plane-owning Scrooge McDuck rich — is to have a butler, but what type of person would willingly give over his life to serving the outrageously moneyed? George Monbiot on how the rich want us to believe their wealth is good for us all (and more). The 1% may be richer than you think, research shows.
