“If they can get you asking the wrong questions, they don’t have to worry about answers.” Progressives have all kinds of ideas to shape a more equitable primary distribution. But those ideas will never get much oxygen if we remain voluntary trapped in the cramped debate of a short-sighted economics.
According to a new white paper by Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph E. Stiglitz, our labyrinthine tax system is encouraging corporations to invest in creating jobs overseas, when unemployment remains doggedly high here at home, while giving US-based multinationals good reason to deprive our treasury of revenues when we should be investing in infrastructure and the American people.
Piketty's central theme is not that inequality of the ownership of wealth is going to skyrocket. The central theme is that the 1% already owns a lot of the capital stock, and the capital stock is going to get gigantic relative to the rest of the economy. Whatever the weakness this meg-tome and mega-best seller, there is no denying - the rich are getting richer, the poor, poorer. (And Piketty is not a Marxist.)
The former Treasury Secretary’s new book shows misunderstanding of the Great Recession’s causes
New from Playing for Change: Words of Wonder / Get Up Stand Up. Unlocking the Cage: A ground-breaking documentary from Chris Hegedus and D.A. Pennebaker. Thomas Piketty's 'Capital' in 3 Minutes. Meet Emily: Tech Demo.
BBC's Policy Editor Chris Cook tells you everything you need to know about Thomas Piketty's landmark book on inequality: Capital in the twenty-first century.
Economist Paul Krugman explains how the United States is becoming an oligarchy - the very system our founders revolted against.
This working paper was prepared for a forum on the top one percent to be published in the Summer 2013 issue of the Journal of Economic Perspectives. It is an analysis of the pay of the top 1 percent, specifically CEO's and top financial professionals as a form of "rent." In other words, the pay is not related to the talent or the productive effort of these individuals and if it were cut through taxation, there would be no harm to the economy.
Wage theft ... it's not clownish, not right, and not legal. Which is why McDonald's is being sued.
Seven reasons why we should be raising the federal minimum to $15 an hour
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