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The Resurrection of Karl Marx
The French economist Thomas Piketty is creating a huge stir with the publication in English of his new book “Capital in the 21st Century.” Mr. Piketty develops a very simple idea, with reams and...
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The Resurrection of Karl Marx II. Let’s React But Not Overreact!
This morning’s Wall Street Journal has a book review by the New York fund manager, Daniel Shuchman, “Thomas Piketty Revives Karl Marx for the 21st Century” of Thomas Piketty’s new book “Capitalism in...
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Is America Falling Behind?
Yesterday’s New York Times has a very interesting article, “U.S. Middle Class No Longer World’s Richest”, demonstrating that from 1980 -2010 the median wage in many other developed nations has grown...
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Saving the System
I seldom use the New York Times sociological columnist, David Brooks, as a source for my blog posts because I am focused primarily on economic and fiscal issues. But his column today, “Saving The...
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The Growth Deficit
I am a fiscal conservative, as well as a social moderate, which means that I don’t fit very easily into a standard mold. I am non-doctrinaire, non-ideological and mostly nonpartisan. I vote for...
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An Inequality Culprit: Single-Parent Families
It is generally agreed that income inequality in the U.S. is bad and getting worse. Before we can address it effectively, we have to understand what is causing it. In this regard the Wall Street...
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Redistribution, Inequality and Growth
Most people agree that income inequality and wealth inequality are increasing in the U.S. Likewise anyone who’s paying attention is aware of our slow rate of GDP growth, averaging 2.2% per year,...
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Raising America’s Pay II. How Can We Do It?
My last post “Raising America’s Pay” addresses a new report from the Economic Policy Institute, “Raising America’s Pay: Why It’s Our Central Economic Policy Challenge”. Its starting point is the now...
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A Scarred U.S. Economy
Today’s New York Times has an article “U.S. Economic Recovery Looks Distant as Growth Stalls”, summarizing the predominant view of economic experts that annual growth of the U.S. economy in the...
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Crony Capitalism and Economic Growth
“If there is one thing that populists on the left and right can agree upon, it is disdain for crony capitalism. It is a distaste for the cesspool of Washington influence in which big-business...
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How to Increase Growth and Decrease Inequality at the Same Time!
The Department of Commerce has just reported basic economic data for the second quarter of 2014. As the chart below shows, the economy gradually lost steam from 2004 – 2008, sunk badly in 2008 and...
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Which Is More Important: Increasing Growth or Decreasing Inequality?
The progressive Global Strategy Group has recently released a new survey report “Focus on Growth to Frame Priorities” with a valuable message for all political candidates, left, right and center. GSG...
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Economic Expansion Is Not Enough
The Washington Post reporter Robert Samuelson gives our economy today a B-, because the unemployment rate has inched down to 6.1%, fulltime employment is up to 105.8 million in 2013 from 99.5 million...
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How Bad Is Income Inequality and How Do We Fix It?
The latest news on the American economy is mixed. The unemployment rate fell to 5.9% in September but the labor force also fell by 97,000 last month. The labor participation is now down to 62.7%, a...
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Inequality Does Not Reduce Prosperity
In the national elections this year four states: Alaska, Arkansas, Nebraska and South Dakota raised their state minimum wage rates above the national rate of $7.25 per hour and, at the same time,...
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Too Much Income Inequality is Harmful to Society
It is well understood that income inequality is increasing in the U.S. and that there are lots of reasons for it. Globalization provides low cost goods from around the world and thus puts pressure...
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How the American Higher Education System Contributes to Inequality
Income inequality in the U.S. is a major problem, getting worse all the time. There are many reasons why this is happening and many suggestions for how to deal with it. On the other hand, it is...
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The Social Effects of Income Inequality
It is well understood that income inequality is increasing in the U.S. for a number of reasons: economic globalization, the rapid development of new technology and the slow recovery from the Great...
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Growth vs Equitable Growth
There is a huge debate going on in political and policy circles between the advocates of increasing economic growth and the advocates of increasing income equality. I generally argue that the best...
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Life in America: Opportunity or Inequality?
How bad is income inequality in the U.S. and what should be done about it? This is a question of great current interest with many different points of view. The chart just below from the...
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