Although we should be up in arms against the wealthy and elite (and the government in their continued support of the top 1%), our big protest movement is the Tea Party.
This article also includes a link to the Stiglitz Vanity Fair article, which is definitely worth reading.
5 comments:
I wonder how economist Tyler Cowen would respond to Stiglitz? See Year in Ideas.
Also, how prescient is this: "And it looks as if we’ll be building on this achievement [inequality on a world class level] for years to come, because what made it possible is self-reinforcing. Wealth begets power, which begets more wealth." So, now we find Rep. Paul Ryan proudly announcing his budget plan for next year ("This is not a budget; this is a cause.") which calls for an even greater reduction of the tax rate for the richest Americans by another ten percentage points, from 35 percent to 25 percent (O how we long for those halcyon days of the 1950's when the highest marginal tax rate was 91%), while pushing a whole range of domestic spending cuts aimed at the poor, including replacing Medicaid with block grants to the states and phasing out Medicare.
Cowen, "A key lesson to take from all of this is that simply railing against income inequality doesn’t get us very far. We have to find a way to prevent or limit major banks from repeatedly going short on volatility at social expense. No one has figured out how to do that yet."
Stiglitz's article is a headline grabbing piece of "Let's blame everything on the superwealthy/government" Article with all flair and no substance. I recommend reading Cowen's piece posted by James if you haven't already (in your previous comment in 'Year in Ideas' you said you had not).
I agree, Ryan's proposal is terrible.
Agreed on all points, including the Stiglitz piece - although I do tend to like his book-length work (much more substance)
Cool, I'll have to check out his longer pieces. Recommendations?
Freefall and the Stiglitz Report. Globalization and Its Discontents is another good one.
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