The federal government has just set the record for the longest period of time without an increase in the minimum wage to keep up with inflation. The minimum wage has now been ignored for over a decade and Kevin Drum…
Blog Archives
Capital in the 21st century
Thomas Piketty’s blockbuster bestselling economics 816-page brick is about capital which he defines broadly as all sorts of wealth. Wealth is anything that earns money for its owner and it is extremely unequally distributed. The richest 1% own almost half…
Posted in Inequality
1/3 of Bloomberg articles are written by artificial intelligence!
Artificial intelligence and automation is taking over more and more jobs. Daron Acemoglu and Pascual Restrepo recently produced research confirming that: the recent stagnation of labor demand is explained by an acceleration of automation, particularly in manufacturing, and a deceleration…
Posted in Globalization & International, Inequality
World inequality updates
Last month the World Inequality Lab, located at the Paris School of Economics, released their first World Inequality Report. Here is one result: The top 1% richest people saw their income growth skyrocket and the poorest people in the world…
Posted in Inequality
New bill would require better measures of median income (plus a lot more)
GDP is a measure of total income in a country. For at least the two decades before 1980, American median income grew about as fast as GDP and Americans below the median income saw faster growth than Americans who were…
Posted in Inequality, Medianism
Occupational licensing is the new unionization
Back in 2011, which kind of license would cost more money to obtain in New York City? A license to practice medicine or a license to drive a taxi cab? A taxi cab medallion cost over $1 million in 2011…
Posted in Inequality, Labor
Innovative societies must have equality of opportunity
The current tax bill is largely motivated by the theory that if you give tax cuts to successful rich people, even though it increases inequality, it will be worth it because these elites will create jobs through innovation with the…
Posted in Inequality, Public Finance
