Abraham Lincoln's War on Inequality
Abraham Lincoln would be embarrassed about the polarization of U.S. politics today, 150 years after his assassination. Make no mistake, Lincoln was a polarizing president. His election was the pretext...
View ArticleFactCheck: is South Africa the most unequal society in the world? (University...
(Source: University of Cape Town) FactCheck: is South Africa the most unequal society in the world? 2 October 2015 It is often said that South Africa is the most unequal society in the world. Andile...
View ArticleIs South Africa the most unequal society in the world?
It is often said that South Africa is the most unequal society in the world. Business and Economy Editor Andile Makholwa put a few questions to , Professor of Economics and Director of the Development...
View ArticleColumn: Tax data and Piketty inequality
On his visit to India, Thomas Piketty, quoting the Credit Suisse (CS) report and his own considerable work on income inequality, stated that “India has one of the worst inequalities in income and...
View ArticleThe US is a big outlier when it comes to income inequality
It's no secret that the US has an inequality problem. But it is striking to see it compared to other developed economies. In a recent note to clients, Goldman Sachs' Sumana Manohar and Hugo Scott-Gall...
View ArticleNo, billionaires don’t drive economic growth – and crony billionaires...
After I escaped communist Czechoslovakia in 1970, I enrolled at Cornell University. In my introductory sociology course there, I was taught that becoming a billionaire was impossible – realising the...
View ArticleBillionaires don't necessarily boost growth
The richest 1 percent will soon hold more than half of the world's wealth, and their share will continue to grow. This raises some key questions: Is a higher number of billionaires in a country a...
View ArticleCaribbean Netherlands: income inequality lowest on Saba (CBS - Statistics...
(Source: CBS - Statistics Netherlands) In 2011, Bonaire had the lowest income inequality of the three islands. The Gini coefficient stood at 0.39. The Gini coefficients on Saba and St Eustatius were...
View ArticleInequality and pay among the world's sports leagues
The performances of Stephen Curry and LeBron James Sunday night in game five of the NBA Finals show how unequal the distribution of talent can be among professional basketball players. The stars scored...
View ArticleEconomists Deny What's Driving the Inequality Trainwreck
A new paper by economist Lance Taylor for the Institute for New Economic Thinking takes on the way economists have looked at wealth and income inequality. Taylor's research challenges some conclusions...
View ArticleThe economy won't even the odds
Bestselling books seldom come as heavy, challenging and unread as economist Thomas Piketty’s magisterial and masterful study of inequality, Capital in the Twenty-First Century. South Africa has...
View ArticleIncome inequality, 2015 (ELSTAT - Hellenic Statistical Authority)
(Source: ELSTAT - Hellenic Statistical Authority) A0802_SFA10_DT_AN_00_2015_06_F_EN HELLENIC REPUBLIC HELLENIC STATISTICAL AUTHORITY Piraeus, 23 / 6 /2016 P R E S S R E L E A S E Income inequality 2015...
View ArticleNo content inserted yet (University of the Witwatersrand)
(Source: University of the Witwatersrand) Thomas Piketty's visit to South Africa provides an opportunity to think creatively about what is driving inequality in the country and what appropriate...
View ArticleHow to achieve inclusive growth? Income inequality and health in G20 Countries
The G20 leader’s summit took place in November in Istanbul, Turkey. The emphasis of Turkey’s G20 presidency this year is on “inclusive and robust global growth.” Turkey recognizes inequality as a major...
View ArticleBasic Income? Yes! Bold Ideas About Fixing Inequality
British economist Tony Atkinson has been studying inequality — the gap in income and wealth between the top and the bottom — for nearly half a century. Now that the dogma of trickle-down has been...
View ArticleRebel Economists on the Historical Path to a Global Recovery
With two renegade economists in one room in London for 90 minutes you can expect some pretty controversial opinions about the current economic establishment. has all the makings of a Real Vision...
View Article1,000 People a Day: Why Red States Are Getting Richer and Blue States Poorer...
(Source: The Heritage Foundation) Every day in America the 50 states compete against each other for people, jobs, investment capital, and overall prosperity. This interstate competition is economically...
View ArticleObama’s Economic Legacy: 'Just the Facts' (US Chamber of Commerce)
(Source: US Chamber of Commerce) Washington D.C. is a city that runs on spin. Never is this phenomenon more apparent than in an election year or during the waning years of a politician's term. The...
View Article‘Just the Facts’ -- Obama’s Economic Legacy (US Chamber of Commerce)
(Source: US Chamber of Commerce) Washington D.C. is a city that runs on spin. Never is this phenomenon more apparent than in an election year or during the waning years of a politician's term. The...
View ArticleJoseph Stiglitz: ‘GDP per capita in the UK is lower than it was before the...
Nobel prize-winner Joseph Stiglitz is the world’s foremost critic of economic and political inequality. He thinks the lessons of the global crash are being ignored, and he’s not much taken with the...
View ArticleSir Anthony Atkinson and the curious optimism of the godfather of inequality
Before Piketty, there was Atkinson. The subject of inequality is now, perhaps indelibly, associated with the young French economist who burst into the public arena last year and became an unlikely...
View ArticleA classic on issues of inequality
The publication of Thomas Piketty’s book “Capital in the Twenty First Century” in March has created waves among the academia, the media and social activists. The excitement over the book has spread to...
View ArticleEngaging with the IMF on inequality
If the IMF is truly concerned with inequality, it needs to make specific changes that go beyond speeches, research papers and 'pilot projects', write Christopher Sheil and Frank Stilwell. OPINION: It...
View Article'The Type of Inequality in a Country Is Unimportant; What's Important Is How...
(Source: Higher School of Economics) At the beginning of September, the American Political Science Associate (APSA) awards ceremony took place in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. At the ceremony, two awards...
View ArticlePiketty mistakes wealth inequality for housing inequality (Texas Public...
(Source: Texas Public Policy Foundation) This commentary originally appeared in Investor's Business Daily on August 10, 2015. Thomas Piketty's "Capital in the Twenty-First Century" revitalized the...
View ArticleAny Way You Calculate it, Income Inequality is Getting Worse
A flurry of new reports have provided yet more data demonstrating that inequality is getting worse. All right, this does not qualify as a shock. But it really isn’t your imagination. The economic...
View ArticlePikkety's lessons on inequality (University of the Witwatersrand)
(Source: University of the Witwatersrand) Thomas Piketty's visit to South Africa provides an opportunity to think creatively about what is driving inequality in the country and what appropriate...
View ArticleCan World’s Worst Case of Inequality be Fixed by Pikettian Posturing?
Entering South Africa this week, stage left, is the celebrated economist Thomas Piketty, whose ideas are already much used and abused. Indeed at the initial University of Cape Town event on September...
View ArticleFinance is Not the Economy
Why have economies polarized so sharply since the 1980s, and especially since the 2008 crisis? How did we get so indebted without real wage and living standards rising, while cities, states, and entire...
View ArticlePiketty, Stiglitz and Our Renewed Interest in Inequality
The publication in 2014 of Thomas Piketty's Capital in the Twenty-First Century brought inequality to the center of the public policy debate. Looking at lots of historical data, he finds that the...
View ArticlePiketty, Stiglitz, and Our Renewed Interest in Inequality
The publication in 2014 of Thomas Piketty's Capital in the Twenty-First Century brought inequality to the center of the public policy debate. Looking at lots of historical data, he finds that the...
View ArticleThis Is Why You Can’t Afford a House
There’s little argument that inequality, and the depressed prospects for the middle class, will be a dominant issue this year’s election. Yet the most powerful force shaping this reality—the rising...
View ArticleByron Wien explains simply why America's wealth inequality is getting worse
A man looks at his phone as he walks out of the courthouse past a man arranging his bags in Los Angeles, California July 8, 2014. It's no secret that the US has an inequality problem. But it is worth...
View ArticleHow Income Inequality Makes Economic Downturns Worse
Not only has income inequality surged in the United States and other advanced nations over the past couple of decades, it is worse in America’s largest, densest, most innovative and knowledge based...
View ArticleIncome inequality, 2016
HELLENIC REPUBLIC HELLENIC STATISTICAL AUTHORITY Piraeus, 23 / 6 /2017 P R E S S R E L E A S E Income inequality 2016 SURVEY ON INCOME AND LIVING CONDITIONS (Income reference period 2015) The Hellenic...
View ArticleBleeding Portland and the Collapse of the Two Capitalist Parties
On July 4, 1863, Robert E Lee retreated from Gettysburg back to Virginia after a devastating three day battle with Northern forces, leaving 7,000 dead and over 30,000 wounded on a Pennsylvania field....
View ArticleThe study that shows life is a lot more unequal than you (probably) think
Voters, take note: a World Bank survey of Indonesian households suggests people have a strong tendency to underestimate the extent of inequality – and it reveals how this can affect their political...
View ArticleInequality: how we got here, and what should be done
If governments fail to reduce inequality then we will all reap the consequences – and these will not be pleasant. A great deal has been written in recent years on the topic of inequality. The books of...
View ArticleWhat American liberals could learn from South Africa
Vehicles pass by a new building under construction in Johannesburg on Thursday. (AP Photo/Denis Farrell) South Africa has the world's most progressive tax system, according to a new report. South...
View ArticleInequality rising, even accelerating, in China
Latest statistics show that inequality is on the rise across income groups and regional divides, and even accelerating in China. Regional wage data from the National Bureau of Statistics released this...
View ArticleGreek referendum: what the experts say
The Greek government is urging a no vote in Sunday’s bailout referendum. Eurozone leaders say vote yes. What do top economists think?...
View ArticleGreek referendum: how would top economists vote?
The Greek government is urging a no vote in Sunday’s bailout referendum. Eurozone leaders say vote yes...
View ArticleIndia may have worst income inequality levels for almost a century
Income inequality in India may be at its highest level since 1922, according to a new research paper, with the top 1 per cent of earners making 22 per cent of all income — a ratio that has risen...
View ArticleIndia economy may have worst inequality levels for almost a century
Income inequality in India may be at its highest level since 1922, according to a new research paper, with the top 1 per cent of earners making 22 per cent of all income — a ratio that has risen...
View ArticleVítor Constâncio: Inequality and macroeconomic policies
Ladies and gentlemen, It is indeed a pleasure to participate in this timely discussion on the distributional impact of macroeconomic policies. For too long, the distribution of income and wealth was...
View ArticleAn Anniversary of Shame
Fifteen years ago, Americans given a glimpse of the future wouldn’t have been surprised to learn that the nation was still observing a day of remembrance for 9/11. But they would likely have been...
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