Category Archives: The destruction of the middle class

Kanbur/Stiglitz: Rent Seeking as a Major Driver of Wealth and Income Inequality

Yves here. This post is wonky but important. While Stiglitz has written regularly about inequality as problematic from an economic perspective, and has mentioned rent seeking as a contributor, to my knowledge, this is the first time he’s said that old theories need to be tossed and that rent seeking is one of the main factors now driving wealth and income inequality.

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Why Bernie Sanders Should Add a Job Guarantee to His Policy Agenda

Bernie has unapologetically rejected sclerotic visions of what is ‘politically possible’.  And now he should add the Job Guarantee to his list of issues.

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Bill Black: Republican Candidates Agree that the System is Rigged for the Rich

The Republican candidates for President all made shameless appeals for even more plutocracy, in particular preferential treatment for the rich.

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The Washington Consensus and Long-Term Austerity in Latin America

Most Latin American countries—including those, like Chile and Brazil, where democratically elected leftist governments were overthrown in the 1960s and 1970s. reversed course to adopt “neoliberal” economic policies. How well did that work?

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New Study Debunks Myth That Exorbitant CEO Pay Results from “Talent”

In the last month or so, I’ve seen some remarkably dubious studies flogged around what Lambert calls the Innertubes, all ringing changes on the same themes: outsized pay for those at the top is a reflection of a state of nature. Fortunately, a new study from Lawrence Mishel and Alyssa Davis of the Economic Policy Institute has done the heavy lifting of shredding new, creative defenses of out-of-control CEO pay.

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