A peculiar story in the Financial Times today, and I have not yet been able to locate the underlying data: Economic opportunity grew more slowly for the average American household than for either the upper or lower end of the income scale over the past two decades, according to an index compiled by Hope Street, […]
Read more...A bit of a mouthful, but the very important point of this Congressional Budget Office report, which was summarized in Congressional testimony and reported in Mark Thoma’s Economist’s View, is that while the growth rate of the economy has become steadier, the volatility of individual incomes has increased considerably. This income instability is another element […]
Read more...A host of star-quality economists made a forceful case at Davos that governments in advanced economies need to reduce income inequalty; otherwise there will be a backlash against globalization. They also took a swipe at the dangers posed by hedge funds and excessive leverage. As cogent as their arguments are, they cross an ideological fault […]
Read more...This post picks up where the last one ended, addressing an article in the Economist’s survey on executive pay. The Economist says that CEO pay increases are for the most part warranted; we say they make the mistake of attributing corporate performance largely to CEOs. This next article on the rationale for high CEO compensation […]
Read more...David Brooks, the New York Times’ conservative Op-Ed columnist, had this comment in today’s paper (our take on it follows): The American Way of Equality Income inequality is on the rise. The rich are getting better at passing their advantages on to their kids. Lifestyle and values gaps are widening between the educated and uneducated. […]
Read more...OK, so it was only a speech by the president of the New York Fed, Tim Geithner, to the Council on Foreign Relations. But the disparity in reporting between the Financial Times, both in placement and content, and the Wall Street Journal (and to some degree Bloomberg) is striking. Not surprisingly, the WSJ downplayed the […]
Read more...Thanks to Economist’s View: Thomas Piketty and Emmanuel Saez Respond to Alan Reynolds, readers can find Thomas Piketty and Emmanuel Saez’s full response to the Alan Reynolds’ December 14 opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal attacking their work on income disparity (see our The Wall Street Journal Defends the Super Rich for a synopsis), […]
Read more...Before we get too far into the new year, let’s not overlook the year-end Economist, which had “Happiness (and How to Measure It)” on its cover. Despite its prominent placement, the topic of happiness hasn’t gotten to prime time. The year end issue has always showcased interesting, often oddball, but never terribly serious pieces (other […]
Read more...The headline amounts to a “dog bites man” story, expect for the stridency and incongruities of the Journal’s editorial position, and the increasing number of super rich themselves begging to differ. A WSJ editorial page commentary by Alan Reynolds, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute, titled “The Top 1%….of What?,” takes issue with the […]
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