We, the Plutocrats vs. We, the People - Saving the Soul of Democracy

Bill Moyers TomDispatch
Our country's greatest failing, the true disaster, of our time: the scourge of growing inequality, economic and political. It is despicable as the very wealthy convert their financial might into political power to guard that wealth while exacerbating inequality further. This is the vast difference between a society whose arrangements serve all its citizens or one whose institutions have been converted into a stupendous fraud - democracy in name only.

The Ever-Growing Gap: Failing to Address the Status Quo Will Drive the Racial Wealth Divide for Centuries to Come

Chuck Collins, Dedrick Asante-Muhammed, Josh Hoxie and Eman Institute for Policy Studies
The typical millionaire receives about $145,000 in public tax benefits, while working families get a grand total of $174 on average. In 2043, minorities will be the majority and the will have doubled. The lingering effects of generations of discriminatory and wealth-stripping practices have left black and Latino households far behind white families, and may impact their economic trajectories in the decades to come.

Is Brexit Win a Warning Signal for Trump-Era America?

Lauren McCauley Common Dreams
Indeed, the parallels with the United States are clear. In the lead up to the November elections, rampant inequality continues to grip the nation while campaign finance laws push lawmakers to unabashedly peddle policies that solely benefit the corporate elite.

Brexit and the New Global Rebellion

Richard Eskow Campaign for America's Future
Great Britain’s citizens haven’t been losing control over their fate to the EU. They’ve been losing it because their own country’s leaders – as well as those of most other Western democracies – are increasingly in thrall to corporate and financial interests.

labor

Pay Disparity is Stunning Between CEOs, Workers

Jon Talton Seattle Times
It is no coincidence that CEO pay has reached astronomical levels at the same time that income inequality has widened to a level not seen since the eve of the Great Depression or even the Gilded Age of the late 19th century. A wide body of scholarship has linked the two. CEOs, who earn 335 times the pay of their average employee, make up a big chunk of the 1 percent. Some ideas to change that are kicking around.

books

Another Reading of Milanovic: Worlds of Inequality - Globalization's Winners and Losers

Miles Corak The American Prospect
Branko Milanovic offers us not just a plethora of facts about income inequality but brings them into a sound and rigorous global perspective, showing that what are too often treated as isolated national issues are on a world scale income massively maldistributed. While some nations saw the growth of a middle strata (China, for one) the real increase in world income is owned by the unprecedented 50-percent rise in incomes for the top 1 percent globally.

Panama Papers: Shadow Economy for the World's Elites

Four hundred investigative journalists are diving into over 11 million leaked documents from the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca that creates shell companies for the rich and powerful to hide their assets, launder dirty money, and shelter income from taxes.

Republican Tax Plan

Either Trump or Cruz's tax plan would be the biggest redistribution of wealth - upward - in the history of the United States.

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