Rising Wealth Inequality: Should We Care?
Why do Americans seem unperturbed about the growing gap between the rich and the poor?
The Lottery Mentality
Chrystia Freeland March 23, 2011
Chrystia Freeland is the global editor-at-large at Thomson Reuters.
Americans are mistaken about income inequality because of national self-confidence and the lottery effect.
Americans actually live in Russia, although they think they live in Sweden. And they would like to live on a kibbutz. This isn't the set-up for some sort of politically incorrect Catskills stand-up joke circa 1960. It is the takeaway from a remarkable study by Michael Norton and Dan Ariely on how Americans think about income inequality.
READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE
My comments...
I believe we need a national debate on the impact of rising income inequality and wealth inequality in America. Sadly, we won't, until there are tent cities in every major metropolitan area, and until the homeless march on Washington, D.C.
I suspect Pres. Obama started the national debate in his address this morning. I expect that in the coming weeks and months we will hear a lot more about the dangers of a two-class America with a small, super-rich oligarchy and a large underclass of property-less poor. Don't expect the rich and powerful to give up either financial or political power, however.
TheNewGildedAge.blogspot.com This blog focuses on the growing inequality of income and wealth in the U.S. As Warren Buffett said in 2008: “There's class warfare, all right, but it's my class, the rich class, that's making war, and we're winning.”
Saturday, April 23, 2011
Plutocrats of the New Gilded Age: The Wizards of Was
Plutocrats of the New Gilded Age: The Wizards of Was
davidoffutt.wordpress.com
In their January 2010 Citizens United ruling, the five Republicans on the Roberts Supreme Court effectively turned all our future elections over to powerful corporations by allowing them to spend unlimited, anonymous dollars on their candidates. Then, the majority of those who voted in the 2010 elections gave the Fox “News”-Republican-TEA Party control of the U. S. House of Representatives and gave them more seats in the Senate to make that body even more dysfunctional.
READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE
My comment...
While the author certainly has a Democratic Party bias, this piece is worthwhile reading simply for its historical perspective and its educational value. If we don't understand our political and economic history as a nation, we risk repeating the same mistakes that were made over a century ago.
davidoffutt.wordpress.com
In their January 2010 Citizens United ruling, the five Republicans on the Roberts Supreme Court effectively turned all our future elections over to powerful corporations by allowing them to spend unlimited, anonymous dollars on their candidates. Then, the majority of those who voted in the 2010 elections gave the Fox “News”-Republican-TEA Party control of the U. S. House of Representatives and gave them more seats in the Senate to make that body even more dysfunctional.
READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE
My comment...
While the author certainly has a Democratic Party bias, this piece is worthwhile reading simply for its historical perspective and its educational value. If we don't understand our political and economic history as a nation, we risk repeating the same mistakes that were made over a century ago.
It's the Inequality, Stupid - By Dave Gilson and Carolyn Perot
It's the Inequality, Stupid
Eleven charts that explain everything that's wrong with America.
— By Dave Gilson and Carolyn Perot
Mother Jones - March/April 2011 Issue
How Rich are the Superrich?
A huge share of the nation's economic growth over the past 30 years has gone to the top one-hundredth of one percent, who now make an average of $27 million per household. The average income for the bottom 90 percent of us? $31,244.
READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE
My comment...
The rich get richer at the expense of the rest of us, and there is no hope this trend will be reversed. Why? Because the median net worth for members of Congress is $912,000. Nearly half of the 535 members of Congress are millionaires or multimillionaires, while for you and me it's 4.5% (1 in 22).
Eleven charts that explain everything that's wrong with America.
— By Dave Gilson and Carolyn Perot
Mother Jones - March/April 2011 Issue
How Rich are the Superrich?
A huge share of the nation's economic growth over the past 30 years has gone to the top one-hundredth of one percent, who now make an average of $27 million per household. The average income for the bottom 90 percent of us? $31,244.
READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE
My comment...
The rich get richer at the expense of the rest of us, and there is no hope this trend will be reversed. Why? Because the median net worth for members of Congress is $912,000. Nearly half of the 535 members of Congress are millionaires or multimillionaires, while for you and me it's 4.5% (1 in 22).
Capitalism is Failing the Middle Class - Reuters 4/19/2011
Capitalism is Failing the Middle Class
Published April 19, 2011 by Reuters
Global capitalism isn't working for the American middle class. That isn't a headline from the left-leaning Huffington Post, or a comment on Glenn Beck's right-wing populist blackboard. It is, instead, the conclusion of a rigorous analysis bearing the imprimatur of the U.S. establishment: the paper's lead author is Michael Spence, recipient of the Nobel Prize in economic sciences, and it was published by the Council on Foreign Relations.
READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE
Published April 19, 2011 by Reuters
Global capitalism isn't working for the American middle class. That isn't a headline from the left-leaning Huffington Post, or a comment on Glenn Beck's right-wing populist blackboard. It is, instead, the conclusion of a rigorous analysis bearing the imprimatur of the U.S. establishment: the paper's lead author is Michael Spence, recipient of the Nobel Prize in economic sciences, and it was published by the Council on Foreign Relations.
READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE
15 Mind-Blowing Facts About Wealth And Inequality In America
15 Mind-Blowing Facts About Wealth And Inequality In America
Gus Lubin, Apr. 9, 2010
The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. Cliché, sure, but it's also more true than at any time since the Gilded Age. The poor are getting poorer, wages are falling behind inflation, and social mobility is at an all-time low. If you're in that top 1%, life is grand.
READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE
Gus Lubin, Apr. 9, 2010
The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. Cliché, sure, but it's also more true than at any time since the Gilded Age. The poor are getting poorer, wages are falling behind inflation, and social mobility is at an all-time low. If you're in that top 1%, life is grand.
READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE
On Pity for the Rich by Paul Krugman, Apr 23, 2011
On Pity for the Rich
by Paul Krugman, Apr 23, 2011
...my take is that what we're looking at is the closing of the conservative intellectual universe, the creation of an echo chamber in which rightists talk only to each other, and in which even the pretense of caring about ordinary people is disappearing.
READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE
by Paul Krugman, Apr 23, 2011
...my take is that what we're looking at is the closing of the conservative intellectual universe, the creation of an echo chamber in which rightists talk only to each other, and in which even the pretense of caring about ordinary people is disappearing.
READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE
Greenspan Steps Up Call to End Bush-Era Tax Cuts
Greenspan Steps Up Call to End Bush-Era Tax Cuts
By Luca Di Leo April 17, 2011, 2:47 PM ET
Former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan is stepping up his call for Congress to let the Bush-era tax cuts lapse.
In an appearance Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Mr. Greenspan used his strongest words yet to urge lawmakers to let them expire. The risk of a U.S. debt crisis, he said, is just too big. Mr. Greenspan, who retired from the Federal Reserve in 2006, had endorsed the cuts back in 2001 championed by then-President George W. Bush.
“This crisis is so imminent and so difficult that I think we have to allow the so-called Bush tax cuts all to expire. That is a very big number,” he said, referring to how much the U.S. government could save from letting income taxes go back up to levels last seen under former President Bill Clinton.
Mr. Greenspan was talking about re-imposing the taxes for all Americans. The Treasury has estimated that a permanent extension of all the Bush tax cuts would cost $3.6 trillion over the next decade. Allowing taxes to increase on those in the top income brackets would take the cost to the government down to $2.9 trillion, according to White House estimates.
Ahead of meetings this weekend of world financial leaders, which included Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and current Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke, the IMF expressed concerns that a delay in slashing the U.S. budget deficit might cause the bond market to lose faith in the country’s ability to do so, which would push interest rates higher and possibly destabilize the global economy.
Mr. Greenspan said he was “far more optimistic” now that the U.S. will solve its fiscal problems than some months ago, pointing to recent moves by politicians on both sides showing openness to cut entitlement spending.
“We’re going to do it realistically. I hope sooner rather than later.”
Stil, when it came to the tax cuts, he sounded more alarmed than he was in August, when he said in an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” that he disagreed with conservatives who said tax cuts essentially pay for themselves by causing more economic activity.
“They do not,” Mr. Greenspan said at the time, adding that the U.S. has been funding spending programs and tax cuts with borrowed money. “And at the end of the day that proves disastrous. My view is I don’t think we can play subtle policy here.”
READ THE ONLINE ARTICLE HERE
My comment...
So, ten years and $4 Trillion dollars too late, former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan acknowledges that the U.S. cannot afford the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy. Wonderful, just wonderful. What a clown !!
By Luca Di Leo April 17, 2011, 2:47 PM ET
Former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan is stepping up his call for Congress to let the Bush-era tax cuts lapse.
In an appearance Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Mr. Greenspan used his strongest words yet to urge lawmakers to let them expire. The risk of a U.S. debt crisis, he said, is just too big. Mr. Greenspan, who retired from the Federal Reserve in 2006, had endorsed the cuts back in 2001 championed by then-President George W. Bush.
“This crisis is so imminent and so difficult that I think we have to allow the so-called Bush tax cuts all to expire. That is a very big number,” he said, referring to how much the U.S. government could save from letting income taxes go back up to levels last seen under former President Bill Clinton.
Mr. Greenspan was talking about re-imposing the taxes for all Americans. The Treasury has estimated that a permanent extension of all the Bush tax cuts would cost $3.6 trillion over the next decade. Allowing taxes to increase on those in the top income brackets would take the cost to the government down to $2.9 trillion, according to White House estimates.
Ahead of meetings this weekend of world financial leaders, which included Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and current Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke, the IMF expressed concerns that a delay in slashing the U.S. budget deficit might cause the bond market to lose faith in the country’s ability to do so, which would push interest rates higher and possibly destabilize the global economy.
Mr. Greenspan said he was “far more optimistic” now that the U.S. will solve its fiscal problems than some months ago, pointing to recent moves by politicians on both sides showing openness to cut entitlement spending.
“We’re going to do it realistically. I hope sooner rather than later.”
Stil, when it came to the tax cuts, he sounded more alarmed than he was in August, when he said in an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” that he disagreed with conservatives who said tax cuts essentially pay for themselves by causing more economic activity.
“They do not,” Mr. Greenspan said at the time, adding that the U.S. has been funding spending programs and tax cuts with borrowed money. “And at the end of the day that proves disastrous. My view is I don’t think we can play subtle policy here.”
READ THE ONLINE ARTICLE HERE
My comment...
So, ten years and $4 Trillion dollars too late, former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan acknowledges that the U.S. cannot afford the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy. Wonderful, just wonderful. What a clown !!
Thursday, April 21, 2011
Goldman Sachs CEO Blankfein says firm is doing 'God's work'
Goldman Sachs CEO Blankfein says firm is doing 'God's work'
By Douglas McIntyre 11/09/09
My comment...
"God's work"... give me a break, Blankfein.
By Douglas McIntyre 11/09/09
My comment...
"God's work"... give me a break, Blankfein.
Goldman Sachs blasted for conflicts of interest
Goldman blasted for conflicts of interest
By Ben Rooney, CNN Money staff reporter
April 14, 2011
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- A Senate panel issued a scathing report Wednesday that describes Goldman Sachs as a "case study" of the recklessness and greed on Wall Street that set off the 2008 financial crisis.
My comment...
So, finally Goldman Sachs and its CEO, Lloyd "We're doing God's work" Blankfein are cited in a Senate report as a "case study of the recklessness and greed on Wall Street that set off the 2008 financial crisis." Now let's see if there are any actual criminal prosecutions to follow.
By Ben Rooney, CNN Money staff reporter
April 14, 2011
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- A Senate panel issued a scathing report Wednesday that describes Goldman Sachs as a "case study" of the recklessness and greed on Wall Street that set off the 2008 financial crisis.
My comment...
So, finally Goldman Sachs and its CEO, Lloyd "We're doing God's work" Blankfein are cited in a Senate report as a "case study of the recklessness and greed on Wall Street that set off the 2008 financial crisis." Now let's see if there are any actual criminal prosecutions to follow.
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
Obama To Bank CEOs... 4/3/2009
Obama To Bank CEOs:
"My Administration Is The Only Thing Between You And The Pitchforks"
Politico:
The bankers struggled to make themselves clear to the president of the United States.
Arrayed around a long mahogany table in the White House state dining room last week, the CEOs of the most powerful financial institutions in the world offered several explanations for paying high salaries to their employees - and, by extension, to themselves.
My comment...
I listened to Pres. Obama's address this morning, and recalled his meeting with Bank CEOs two years ago. I fear we are looking into the abyss of a breakdown in the political dialogue. The Left fears a two-class New Gilded Age of rich and poor; the Right fears outright class warfare. There will be no winners.
And, according to Warren Buffett, one of the world's richest men: “There's class warfare, all right, but it's my class, the rich class, that's making war, and we're winning.”
"My Administration Is The Only Thing Between You And The Pitchforks"
Politico:
The bankers struggled to make themselves clear to the president of the United States.
Arrayed around a long mahogany table in the White House state dining room last week, the CEOs of the most powerful financial institutions in the world offered several explanations for paying high salaries to their employees - and, by extension, to themselves.
My comment...
I listened to Pres. Obama's address this morning, and recalled his meeting with Bank CEOs two years ago. I fear we are looking into the abyss of a breakdown in the political dialogue. The Left fears a two-class New Gilded Age of rich and poor; the Right fears outright class warfare. There will be no winners.
And, according to Warren Buffett, one of the world's richest men: “There's class warfare, all right, but it's my class, the rich class, that's making war, and we're winning.”
Sunday, April 17, 2011
America's New Gilded Age 10/25/2010
America's New Gilded Age
10/25/2010
There's a "new" kind of class warfare being waged in in the United States, but you have to look very closely to find it. Perhaps "warfare" is the wrong word, for a war must have two sides in active opposition to each other, whereas this time around we only have two sides. This "warfare" is creating conditions that more and more resemble those of the late 19th century when America did not yet have an extensive Middle Class. Mark Twain dubbed this corrupt era the "Gilded Age."
The great egalitarian (socialist) movements of the 20th century are long gone. In the decades after the Great Depression and World War II, the Democrats assimilated some of the socialist agenda, which faded away during the Cold War. In the 1960s, Lyndon Johnson could still wage a war on poverty. When I was growing up, Democrats stood for labor unions and rights of working people. Republicans ... did not. For years and years, everybody understood that this was how things worked.
10/25/2010
There's a "new" kind of class warfare being waged in in the United States, but you have to look very closely to find it. Perhaps "warfare" is the wrong word, for a war must have two sides in active opposition to each other, whereas this time around we only have two sides. This "warfare" is creating conditions that more and more resemble those of the late 19th century when America did not yet have an extensive Middle Class. Mark Twain dubbed this corrupt era the "Gilded Age."
The great egalitarian (socialist) movements of the 20th century are long gone. In the decades after the Great Depression and World War II, the Democrats assimilated some of the socialist agenda, which faded away during the Cold War. In the 1960s, Lyndon Johnson could still wage a war on poverty. When I was growing up, Democrats stood for labor unions and rights of working people. Republicans ... did not. For years and years, everybody understood that this was how things worked.
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