Inequality or Living Standards: Which Matters More? – Max Roser, Brian Nolan, Stefan Thewissen

For many years inequality in income and wealth received little attention in public debate and was only a minority interest in the economics profession. GDP per capita was widely considered to be a satisfactory indicator of economic prosperity. Yet, inequality has now become the focus of remarkably wide-ranging attention, from Davos and the State of the Union address to academic …

WHY NO ONE CAN END RONALD REAGAN’S “DEAD WRONG” VOODOO ECONOMICS

Venture capitalist Nick Hanauer, a highly visible champion of Seattle’s $15/hour minimum wage, wrote a piece in the Atlantic last month pushing on another front in the war against toxic income inequality. “Stock Buybacks Are Killing the American Economy,” he warned, and getting rid of them would be a tremendous boon to the economy. This latest front rebukes those who …

World’s Richest One Percent Undermine Fight Against Economic Inequalities

UNITED NATIONS, Mar 19 2015 (IPS) – The growing economic inequalities between rich and poor – and the lopsided concentration of wealth and power in the hands of the world’s one percent – are undermining international efforts to fight global poverty, environmental degradation and social injustice, according to a civil society alliance. Comprising ActionAid, Greenpeace, Oxfam and Civicus, the group of …

Unjust Public Policies Drive the Massive Racial Wealth Gap in America: Study

The yawning racial wealth gap in the United States is no accident, but rather, driven by unjust public policy decisions—from the re-segregation of education to the redlining of home ownership to poverty wages, according to a new analysis by Brandeis University and the public policy organization Demos. Inequalities are vast, note the researchers. For example, Census data shows that, in 2011, median …

IMF: Weaker Unions = Higher CEO Pay

As labor unions have declined in most countries around the world, CEO paychecks have ballooned. And that’s not just a coincidence, according to new research from the International Monetary Fund. In the latest issue of the IMF’s Finance & Development journal, researchers Florence Jaumotte and Carolina Osorio Buitron give a preview of their forthcoming study on the links between unionization rates and …