Category Archives: Income disparity

Lynn Parramore: The Depressing Tale of How Greedy Financial Titans Crushed Innovation and Destroyed Our Economy

Whatever happened to innovation in America?

Michael Hudson Shreds Obama’s Orwellian Speech on Middle Class Prosperity

Michael Hudson was so incensed by what he called a “Blairesque” speech by Obama on Wednesday that he took it upon himself to comment on its all-too-frequent sleights of hand and outright fabrications

Chris Hedges: “America is a Tinderbox”

A Real News Network interview with Chris Hedges precipitated a lively, thoughtful discussion of the mess we are in as a civilization and whether we can pull ourselves out of what looks like a nosedive.

I thought readers might enjoy continuing the exchange, and the latest release in this Real News Network series should provide ample grist for debate.

Why Are Americans’ Life Expectancies Shorter than Those of People in Other Advanced Economies?

Yves here. The high social cost of inequality – the fact that it shortens the lives of people at the top of the pecking order along with the lower orders – has long been excluded from discussion in polite company in the US.

This entry was posted in Guest Post, Health care, Income disparity, Social policy, The destruction of the middle class on July 19, 2013 by Yves Smith.

Chris Hedges on Whether We Can Change Trajectory and Avert Collapse

Yves here. Chris Hedges opens a new series on Real News Network by discussing how dire our current situation is, particularly from an ecological perspective, and the reluctance to acknowledge it and take corrective measures.

This entry was posted in Environment, Global warming, Income disparity, Politics, Social policy, Social values, Species loss on July 19, 2013 by Yves Smith.

McDonalds Tells Workers to Toil 70 Hours a Week, Use Ripoff Payroll Cards as Part of “Financial Literacy”

The poor have to endure not just the indignity of struggling to survive, but also from having to listen to pious lectures on how they really can proper on their meager incomes.

Econ4 on the New Economy

Econ4, a group of heterodox economists, has released a short video and a statement on the “new economy” which they define as more sustainable and equitable forms of organizing “productive” activity and the resources that support them.

Quelle Surprise! Crappy Labor Market Leads to Rise in Public Perception of Unions

In a new article at the Prospect, Harold Meyerson tells us that unions are getting higher marks than they did a few years ago:

This entry was posted in Income disparity, Politics, Regulations and regulators, Social values, The destruction of the middle class on July 9, 2013 by Yves Smith.

“The Political History of American Inequality”

Inquality.org, which is a portal for news and data about income inequality, has published a particularly well-presented paper, The Political History of American Inequality, by Colin Gordon, a professor of history at the University of Iowa who has focused on 20th century American public policy and political economy. I’ve sampled it, and it’s clear and engagingly written and has great interactive chart porn,

This entry was posted in Economic fundamentals, Income disparity, Politics, Social policy, Social values, The destruction of the middle class on June 22, 2013 by Yves Smith.

Lynn Parramore: Meet America’s Most Shameless Defender of the 1 Percent, Harvard Economist Greg Mankiw

Readers were duly exercised about a paper published by Greg Mankiw which had to go through so many hoops to promote the idea that inequality was the result of merit as to be worthy of our Frederic Mishkin Iceland Prize for Intellectual Integrity.

Suffice it to say further ridicule of Mankiw is in order, and Parramore provides a useful contribution.

This entry was posted in Guest Post, Income disparity, Social values, The destruction of the middle class, The dismal science on June 19, 2013 by Yves Smith.

Robert Wade: Elite Denial of Corruption and Inequality – World Bank Case Study

Yves here. While readers may think development policy has limited relevance to US and advanced economy readers, the IMF and World Bank have been and continue to be vehicles to make the world, particularly smaller or otherwise more influenceable regimes, more friendly to the interests of US multinationals. And at the same time US companies are taking down a record share of GDP in profits, the country’s ranking in inequality is worse than that of many developing economies. New York City is more unequal than China, and as the chart below shows, is also more unequal than Russia, famed for its oligarchs, and India, which still has hundreds of millions living in abject poverty.

So the World Bank’s efforts over time to exclude issues like corruption and inequality from its analysis have direct and obvious parallels to policy discussions here. Wade’s anecdotes of the way the World Bank refused to even allow the “c” word to be acknowledged are striking.

Lynn Parramore: Obama Nominates America’s Biggest Walmart Cheerleader as His Chief Economic Adviser

Apparently, the most important criterion for getting an important post in the Obama Administration is telling Big Lies, better yet with data. Jason Furman claims Walmart is a “progressive success story.”

This entry was posted in Globalization, Guest Post, Income disparity, Politics, Social policy, Social values, The dismal science on June 12, 2013 by Yves Smith.