"Inequality Has Actually Not Risen Since the Financial Crisis"

[applegrove]

Inequality Has Actually Not Risen Since the Financial Crisis

by David Leonhardht at the NY Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/17/upshot/inequality-has-actually-not-risen-since-the-financial-crisis.html?rref=upshot&module=ArrowsNav&contentCollection=The%20Upshot&action=keypress®ion=FixedRight&pgtype=article&abt=0002&abg=1&_r=0

"SNIP.................


The notion that income inequality has continued to rise over the past decade is part of the conventional wisdom. You’ve no doubt heard versions: The rich just keep getting richer. Inequality is higher than ever. Nearly all of the gains from the economic recovery have gone to the top 1 percent.

No question, inequality is extremely high from a historical perspective – worrisomely so. But a new analysis, by Stephen J. Rose of George Washington University, adds an important wrinkle to the story: Income inequality has not actually risen since the financial crisis began.

President Johnson and the first lady in Kentucky on a tour of Appalachia in 1964. Until fairly recently, there was little research interest in income inequality and problems of the middle class. The focus instead was on poverty, especially among the elderly and in urban slums and rural areas.

How could that be? Because the crisis, which ran roughly from 2007 to 2010, reduced the pretax incomes of the wealthiest Americans more than the incomes of any group. The wealthy have indeed received the bulk of the gains since the recovery began, but they still haven’t recovered their losses. Meanwhile, the steps that the federal government took in response to the crisis, including tax cuts and benefit increases, have mostly helped the nonwealthy.
0Analysis by Steve Rose, an economist and research professor at George Washington University, takes a new look at income inequality in the wake of the financial crisis that began in 2007. Credit Gabriella Demczuk for The New York Times

Fascinatingly, Mr. Rose’s case is not based on a new or previously undiscovered data set. It’s based on the same statistics most commentators have been using to discuss inequality. The most up-to-date numbers come from the pathbreaking analysis of tax records by Emmanuel Saez, the University of California, Berkeley, professor who often collaborates with Thomas Piketty. A second set of statistics comes from the Congressional Budget Office.



................SNIP"

[applegrove]

1. Obama is not responsible for increasing inequality. It is all on republican policies over the last

30 years.

[onecaliberal]

2. Considering our wages have fallen and the top earners have increased

Everything we buy is more expensive and we all have less to spend, so I find this difficult to believe.