Tag Archives: inequality

DOJ’s Zero Tolerance Of Zero Tolerance

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A Justice Department report critical of the Baltimore police missed the point. So did those who praised and faulted it. [Credit: NY Post]

A Jus­tice Depart­ment report crit­i­cal of the Bal­ti­more police missed the point. So did those who praised and fault­ed it. [Cred­it: NY Post]

The Depart­ment of Jus­tice report on Bal­ti­more police prac­tices has prompt­ed pre­dictable reac­tions from Left and Right.

The report con­firmed sus­pi­cions on the Left that police uncon­sti­tu­tion­al­ly harassed African-Amer­i­can males. From the Right came reflex­ive defens­es of the police.

Both have a point.  And both miss the point.  As does the report itself. Con­tin­ue read­ing →

Are Penis Thieves Real?

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Seinfeld's George Costanza fretted about "shrinkage." But are penis thieves really a bigger problem? [Credit: businessinsider.com]

Sein­feld’s George Costan­za fret­ted about “shrink­age.” But could penis thieves pose a big­ger prob­lem? [Cred­it: businessinsider.com]

“One of the prob­lems,” author Frank Bures said in a recent Atlantic inter­view, “is this whole dis­tinc­tion between real and not real.”

Bures is the author of The Geog­ra­phy of Mad­ness: Penis Thieves, Voodoo Death, and the Search for the Mean­ing of the World’s Strangest Syn­dromes.  His book exam­ines con­di­tions that the DSM‑V, a man­u­al used to diag­nose and clas­si­fy men­tal dis­or­ders, terms “cul­ture-bound syn­dromes.” Con­tin­ue read­ing →

Inequality: What We Earn vs. What We Consume

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Is inequality better measured by what we earn or what we spend? The difference is surprising. [Credit: Politic.org]

Is inequal­i­ty bet­ter mea­sured by what we earn or what we spend? The dif­fer­ence is sur­pris­ing. [Cred­it: Politic.org]

Is your stan­dard of liv­ing bet­ter mea­sured by what you earn or by what you buy?

The ques­tion may seem an odd one, but it is crit­i­cal to under­stand­ing the prob­lem of ris­ing inequal­i­ty. Con­tin­ue read­ing →

Paul Krugman and the Inequality Deniers

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Recent criticism of Thomas Piketty's Capital in the 21st Centruy has drawn the ire of the splenetic Paul Krugman. [Credit: National Review]

Recent crit­i­cism of Thomas Piket­ty’s Cap­i­tal in the 21st Cen­tu­ry has drawn the ire of the sple­net­ic Paul Krug­man. [Cred­it: Nation­al Review]

There is grow­ing con­cern among peo­ple on the Right and Left about income inequal­i­ty. But you wouldn’t know that from read­ing Paul Krugman’s lat­est screed.

What stirred Krugman’s bile this week was crit­i­cism of econ­o­mist Thomas Piketty’s book, Cap­i­tal in the 21st Cen­tu­ry, a work that has attained canon­i­cal sta­tus among the Left on both sides of the Atlantic. Con­tin­ue read­ing →

Maximum Wage: Solution to Inequality?

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The Swiss campaign to limit executive pay fell short, but are there good solutions to the problem of income inequality?

The Swiss cam­paign to lim­it exec­u­tive pay fell short, but are there good solu­tions to the prob­lem of income inequality?

We know that people’s frus­tra­tions run deep­er than these most recent polit­i­cal bat­tles. … They expe­ri­ence in a very per­son­al way the relent­less, decades-long trend. … And that is a dan­ger­ous and grow­ing inequal­i­ty and lack of upward mobil­i­ty that has jeop­ar­dized mid­dle-class America’s basic bar­gain — that if you work hard, you have a chance to get ahead. .I believe this is the defin­ing chal­lenge of our time: mak­ing sure our econ­o­my works for every work­ing Amer­i­can. It’s why I ran for Pres­i­dent. It was at the cen­ter of last year’s cam­paign. It dri­ves every­thing I do in this office. — Pres­i­dent Obama

Eco­nom­ic inequal­i­ty is a polit­i­cal­ly potent issue.  Van­der­bilt Uni­ver­si­ty pro­fes­sor Lar­ry Bar­tels believes that it was a crit­i­cal one in the 2012 Pres­i­den­tial race, adding 2 to 3 per­cent­age points to Pres­i­dent Oba­ma’s share of the vote and 1 per­cent in bat­tle­ground states.  The Pres­i­den­t’s advan­tage on this issue, Bar­tels says, was large­ly sym­bol­ic, hav­ing more to do with the per­cep­tion that his oppo­nen­t’s great wealth had detached him from the con­cerns of ordi­nary vot­ers. Peo­ple moti­vat­ed to vote for the Pres­i­dent because of this issue did so more because of who they believed Mitt Rom­ney was than because of what the Pres­i­dent pro­posed to do. Con­tin­ue read­ing →

The Good News Pope Francis Missed

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Pope Francis's inaugural encyclical celebrated the gospel and excoriated markets. But did he overlook some very good news? [Credit: Telegraph]

Pope Fran­cis’s inau­gur­al encycli­cal cel­e­brat­ed the gospel and exco­ri­at­ed mar­kets. But did he over­look some very good news? [Cred­it: Telegraph]

In writ­ing about the joy of the gospel, Pope Fran­cis over­looked some very good news – about mar­kets, about com­pas­sion, about poverty.

His first encycli­cal (Evan­gelii Gaudi­um, “The Joy of The Gospel”) has drawn atten­tion less for its focus on mis­sions than for its eco­nom­ic pro­nounce­ments. Pres­i­dent Oba­ma favor­ably cit­ed the doc­u­ment in his recent remarks on eco­nom­ic mobil­i­ty, while some con­ser­v­a­tive com­men­ta­tors have offered up harsh crit­i­cisms. Con­tin­ue read­ing →

Could A Wealth Tax Solve the Problem of Government Debt?

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A recent IMF report suggests that this man's enormous wealth might help resolve the government's debt problem. [Credit: NY Post]

A recent IMF report sug­gests that this man’s enor­mous wealth might help resolve the gov­ern­men­t’s debt prob­lem. [Cred­it: NY Post]

The Inter­na­tion­al Mon­e­tary Fund (IMF) recent­ly report­ed that Euro­pean gov­ern­ments could reduce their debt back to pre-Great Reces­sion lev­els by con­fis­cat­ing 10 per­cent of the wealth held by their rich­est cit­i­zens. IMF isn’t rec­om­mend­ing that, of course.

They’re just sayin’. Con­tin­ue read­ing →

Jon Corzine: Poster Boy for Crony Capitalism?

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President Obama unsuccessfully campaigned for Jon Corzine. Since then, nearly $1 billion in client money disappeared into the ether in a firm Corzine steered into bankruptcy.

Pres­i­dent Oba­ma unsuc­cess­ful­ly cam­paigned for Jon Corzine in 2009. Since then, near­ly $1 bil­lion in client mon­ey dis­ap­peared into the ether from a firm Corzine steered into bank­rupt­cy, but the Oba­ma Admin­is­tra­tion con­clud­ed that Corzine com­mit­ted no crime.

Jon Corzine is not a crook. No, really.

The Jus­tice Department’s inves­ti­ga­tion of the for­mer Wall Street titan, New Jer­sey Gov­er­nor and U.S. Sen­a­tor con­clud­ed last sum­mer that he’d done noth­ing wrong. Or at least noth­ing crim­i­nal. Con­tin­ue read­ing →

Fed Up: Judge Strikes Down Federal Reserve on Swipe Fees

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The Fed holds all the cards when it sets a policy. Nobody bothered telling that to a federal judge, who last week struck down a Fed regulation on debit card swipe fees.

The Fed holds all the cards when it sets pol­i­cy. Nobody both­ered telling that to a fed­er­al judge, who last week struck down a Fed reg­u­la­tion on deb­it card swipe fees.

When it comes to bailouts, mon­e­tary pol­i­cy, and bank­ing reg­u­la­tion, the Fed­er­al Reserve has the last word. No one – not the Pres­i­dent, not Con­gress, not any­one – stops the Fed from doing what it has deter­mined to do. Until last week. Con­tin­ue read­ing →

Economic Inequality Not Obama’s Fault

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The "Occupy Wall Street" demonstrations are a distant memory, but the economic disparities they decried still persist. [Credit: ABC News]

The “Occu­py Wall Street” demon­stra­tions are a dis­tant mem­o­ry, but the eco­nom­ic dis­par­i­ties they decried still per­sist. [Cred­it: ABC News]

Pres­i­dent Oba­ma has a new plan to revi­tal­ize the mid­dle class.  It almost cer­tain­ly won’t work, but that almost cer­tain­ly isn’t his fault.  Con­tin­ue read­ing →