Recent quotes:

Evening Must-Read: Richard Reeves: Wealth, Inequality, and the ‘Me? I’m Not Rich!’ Problem - Washington Center for Equitable Growth

“Daily Show” correspondent Hasan Minhaj became a faux class warrior on behalf of those struggling to get by with just one or two homes and having to share a private jet…
#Income-Inequality #Wealth-Inequality #Richard-Reeves #001 - equitablegrowth.org

If the Rise of the Robots Is Moved from the Ten-Year to the Fifty-Year Agenda, What Replaces It on the Ten-Year Agenda?: Focus - Washington Center for Equitable Growth

There are the different agendas at different time frames–say two years, ten years, and fifty years. The smart young whippersnapper Marshall Steinbaum reports on the growing consensus that dealing with the Rise of the Robots is on our fifty-year agenda, and not on our two-year or our ten-year agenda
#Rise-of-the-Robots #Income-Inequality #Lawrence-Summers #Marshall-Steinbaum #Plutocracy #Overclass - equitablegrowth.org

Evening Must-Read: The Hamilton Project: Future of Work Event: Tweets - Washington Center for Equitable Growth

The Hamilton Project (@hamiltonproj) | Twitter: You can watch the full #FutureOfWork forum on @cspan http://cs.pn/1z3WKBP That concludes our #FutureOfWork event.Thanks to our panelists for a great discussion. Visit http://bit.ly/1BZmC4U for video & audio Who is going to be technologically displaced if machines take away labor jobs? That’s a social problem, concludes @LauraDTyson #FutureOfWork ‘US has great incentives to do #research, but weak incentives to create #jobs and keep profits here’ – @LauraDTyson #labor #FutureOfWork Given nature of tech changes, a lot is not going to measurable unless you figure what the output is, @LauraDTyson asks panel #FutureOfWork
#Information-Economy #Rise-of-the-Robots #Income-Inequality #Hamilton-Project - equitablegrowth.org

Morning Must-Read: Nick Bunker: Income Inequality Over the Business Cycle - Washington Center for Equitable Growth

I must say, Stephen Rose used to do very good work. But more and more I find that the stuff he puts out these days has a “gotcha” in it–a decision as to what to look at that is debatable, that shapes his conclusions massively, and that he does not warn me about his importance. Having to dig for what the “gotcha” is in each case is time consuming, boring, and annoying. I think he should stop. Vir spectabilis Nick Bunker does the heavy lifting: Nick Bunker: Income Inequality Over the Business Cycle: “Stephen Rose argues that income inequality… …has not risen since the end of the Great Recession… takes aim at research by University of California-Berkeley economist Emmanuel Saez showing that 95 percent of the income gains from 2009 to 2012 were captured by the top 1 percent of earners… assert[s claims]… inequality has risen since the Great Recession… based upon a ‘statistical gimmick.’ Rose… look[s] at changes in incomes since 2007, the peak of the last business cycle…. Saez and… Piketty show… income excluding capital gains… [of] the top 1 percent dropped from 18.3 percent in 2007 to 16.7 percent in 2009…. During economic expansions, workers at the bottom of the income ladder see very large gains and those at the top see large gains as well. Those in the middle miss out. And during recessions, the incomes at both ends lose the most…. By starting his measurement from the peak of the last business cycle in 2007, Rose includes the years that have the most income reduction for those at the top. But the expansion beginning in 2009… is not over…. Yes, if 2007 is the benchmark year, incomes at the top have declined. And yes, if 2009 is the benchmark year, incomes at the top have increased dramatically…. What isn’t reasonable is using a peak as a benchmark to claim inequality hasn’t increased over an incomplete business cycle…
#Nick-Bunker #Income-Inequality #Stephen-Rose #Business-Cycle - equitablegrowth.org

Evening Must-Read: Ben Walsh: How the Rich Are Not Getting Poorer - Washington Center for Equitable Growth

Ben Walsh: Here’s a chart saying ‘the rich have gotten poorer since 2007’… …Here’s a chart showing the wealth of the rich. They don’t seem to be getting poorer…. @Adennisdillon: @BenDWalsh Other problem is picking a bubble year as a baseline.
#Income-Inequality #Wealth-Inequality #Ben-Walsh - equitablegrowth.org