Month: March 2014

I’m surprised that nobody highlights what for me is the key takeaway from that report. They predict, with a $10.10/indexed increase: Low-end incomes increase $19 billion. High-end incomes decline $17 billion. For a net GDI increase of $2 billion. Table 1, page 2: Pie gets bigger, all that rot. The increase is presumably explained by…

Upate: Those who have qualms about the methodology and underlying assumptions here would do well to consider Thomas Piketty’s thinking on page 210 of Capital in the 21st Century. He distinguishes between “real” and “nominal” assets, pointing out that real asset values climb along with inflation and growth, while nominal asset values don’t. A simple rule of…

Thomas Piketty’s important new book, Capital in the Twenty-First Century, predicts a bleak future of increasing concentrations of financial assets in few hands, stagnant wages and labor share of income, and declining returns to capital — secular stagnation. He enunciates and demonstrates the part of Marx that Marx got exactly right. But Dean Baker points out where…