Tag: inequality
-
The Middle Class is Disappearing … Into the Upper Class
U.S. Census Bureau recently released time-series data on household income. All data in the following chart is pegged to 2010 dollars, which is adjusted for inflation – a dollar in 1970 buys the same as a dollar in 2020. The Census Bureau divides the income distribution into nine segments and three broader categories: Poor: $0…
-
Technology, Globalization, and Inequality.
These articles caught my eye this week. First, in the Atlantic: Bash Brothers: How Globalization and Technology Teamed Up to Crush Middle-Class Workers Globalizationandtechnology is often referred to like a monolithic thing. A new study shows they're very separate. Globalization increases joblessness. Computers increase inequality. The article is reporting on a recent economic study: Untangling…
-
Saturday Links
1. Phillip Swagel with a good piece on Inequality and Opportunity … I am not convinced, however, that the president's proposals are well matched to the problem he describes. Indeed, Mr. Obama is better at describing the outcomes he seeks than at putting forward a coherent set of policies to reach those outcomes. But I…
-
Are We Talking About Inequality or Poverty?
Clive Crook wrote an interesting piece: All This Inequality Talk Does Nothing for the Poor – Bloomberg … Inequality is rising, and that's a bad thing. What's worse is that the issue is getting mixed up with what should be a more pressing debate over economic opportunity, which would be better kept separate. This is…
-
Caste and entrepreneurship in India
BBC: Caste and entrepreneurship in India The story of India's economic surge is dominated by two conflicting narratives. … Delving into the relationship between caste and entrepreneurship, the researchers have found that scheduled castes and tribes, the most disadvantaged groups in Hinduism's hierarchy, owned very little businesses despite a decade of sprightly economic growth and…
-
The Benefits and Perils of the Minimum Wage
Economist: The argument in the floor Evidence is mounting that moderate minimum wages can do more good than harm … America’s academics still do not agree on the employment effects. But both sides have honed their methods and, in some ways, the gap between them has shrunk. Messrs Card and Krueger moved on to other…
-
Latin America’s income inequality falling, says World Bank
Guardian: Latin America's income inequality falling, says World Bank Region now has as many middle class people as those who are poor thanks to rapid growth in incomes, study reveals. Income inequality is falling in Latin America even as it rises elsewhere in the world, according to a World Bank study that encourages government intervention…
-
Can progressive economists join forces with the church? – Felix Salmon
Reuters: Can progressive economists join forces with the church? – Felix Salmon Last week I was invited to hear Joe Stiglitz talk on “God, hope, happiness, death, suffering, values, grace, and evil” at Union Theological Seminary. With a menu like that, how could I resist? The event was billed as an “innovative lecture series” combining,…