From Talking Points Memo, a special series on the March to Inequality: Rich Yeselson on the decline of labor, the increase in inequality; John Judis on how, despite rhetoric, Americans don’t actually support policies to reduce inequality; Jared Bernstein on a deep, deep dive into the economics of inequality; and Brad DeLong on the melting away of North Atlantic social democracy. Michael A. Fletcher on how income inequality has squeezed the middle class out of the majority. David Cay Johnston on how the wealthiest dozen Americans own more than the bottom half. This 1955 article on CEOs shows that American inequality wasn’t always so massive. It’s really hard to be in the one percent, say the one percent. Wealth therapy tackles woes of the rich: “It’s really isolating to have lots of money”. Gregory Ferenstein interviews dozens of Silicon Valley elites about inequality.
Where does inequality come from? Raphael Magarik reviews On Inequality by Harry Frankfurt. Is vast inequality necessary? Why the rich are so much richer: James Surowiecki reviews The Great Divide: Unequal Societies and What We Can Do About Them by Joseph E. Stiglitz; Rewriting the Rules of the American Economy: An Agenda for Growth and Shared Prosperity by Joseph E. Stiglitz (and more); and Creating a Learning Society: A New Approach to Growth, Development, and Social Progress by Joseph E. Stiglitz and Bruce C. Greenwald.
What money can buy: Darren Walker and the Ford Foundation set out to conquer inequality. Economists take aim at wealth inequality. Justin Fox on why economists took so long to focus on inequality (and more). Noah Smith on the cost of redistributing wealth. All things being unequal: New books ask whether economic inequality is the real problem — or whether our preoccupation with it distracts us from more fundamental issues. Dylan Matthews on the case against equality of opportunity: It’s an incoherent, impossible ideal — and if we’re really going to fight inequality, it needs to be abandoned.
From The American Prospect, Robert Kuttner on the new inequality debate: More mainstream economists now find that the income mal-distribution reflects the political sway of elites, not economic imperatives. Income inequality happens by design — we can’t fix it by tweaking capitalism. Matt Bruenig on how the increase in inequality is necessarily caused by policy — and how inequality reduction is not mysterious. Ray Fisman and Daniel Markovits on why income inequality isn’t going anywhere: Rich elites — even rich liberal elites — don’t believe in redistributing wealth. Suzy Khimm on 2015 as the year the fight against inequality went mainstream: Even Republicans are getting in on the act — but the issue’s reach is still limited by age-old political realities. America may be in a reinforcing feedback loop of growing inequality and Republican rule — Democrats really are in big trouble for the foreseeable future.
