a return to pre-Reagan tax rates?
Harlan Green
Editor and Publisher, PopularEconomics.com
Who Is Most Scared of Inequality?
Posted: 08/13/2015 9:49 am EDT
"The average annual rate of productivity growth from 2007 to 2014 was revised down to 1.3 percent per year from the prior estimate of 1.4 percent, the Labor Department said Tuesday. This is well below the long-term rate of 2.2 percent per year from 1947 to 2014.
"This is at the same time that record income inequality has impoverished so many on Main Street today. And some among the wealthiest One Percent are becoming alarmed at the inequality, the worst since 1929 and the Great Depression, and the consequent loss in productivity.
"Peter Georgescu, Chairman Emeritus of ad giant Young & Rubicom and some of his hedge fund colleagues say they are.
"I'M scared'" says Georgescu in a recent New York Times Op-ed. "The billionaire hedge funder Paul Tudor Jones is scared. My friend Ken Langone, a founder of the Home Depot, is scared. So are many other chief executives. Not of Al Qaeda, or the vicious Islamic State or some other evolving radical group from the Middle East, Africa or Asia. We are afraid where income inequality will lead."
"Where might it lead? "If inequality is not addressed, the income gap will most likely be resolved in one of two ways: by major social unrest or through oppressive taxes, such as the 80 percent tax rate on income over $500,000 suggested by Thomas Piketty, the French economist and author of the best-selling book "Capital in the Twenty-First Century."
"The result of such a maldisribution of wealth has been slumping economic growth, as less has been invested in productive enterprises that would increase the output of workers, and more hoarded by corporations and Wall Street that have record amounts of cash holdings.
"U.S Corporations have some $4.5 trillion in cash and liquid reserves here and overseas, according to the St. Louis Fed, not being used productively . U.S. Banks still hold close to $1 trillion in excess reserves with the Fed in MZM accounts earning no interest."
More >>
When your customers are broke, you can't make sales.
Harlan Green
Editor and Publisher, PopularEconomics.com
Who Is Most Scared of Inequality?
Posted: 08/13/2015 9:49 am EDT
"The average annual rate of productivity growth from 2007 to 2014 was revised down to 1.3 percent per year from the prior estimate of 1.4 percent, the Labor Department said Tuesday. This is well below the long-term rate of 2.2 percent per year from 1947 to 2014.
"This is at the same time that record income inequality has impoverished so many on Main Street today. And some among the wealthiest One Percent are becoming alarmed at the inequality, the worst since 1929 and the Great Depression, and the consequent loss in productivity.
"Peter Georgescu, Chairman Emeritus of ad giant Young & Rubicom and some of his hedge fund colleagues say they are.
"I'M scared'" says Georgescu in a recent New York Times Op-ed. "The billionaire hedge funder Paul Tudor Jones is scared. My friend Ken Langone, a founder of the Home Depot, is scared. So are many other chief executives. Not of Al Qaeda, or the vicious Islamic State or some other evolving radical group from the Middle East, Africa or Asia. We are afraid where income inequality will lead."
"Where might it lead? "If inequality is not addressed, the income gap will most likely be resolved in one of two ways: by major social unrest or through oppressive taxes, such as the 80 percent tax rate on income over $500,000 suggested by Thomas Piketty, the French economist and author of the best-selling book "Capital in the Twenty-First Century."
"The result of such a maldisribution of wealth has been slumping economic growth, as less has been invested in productive enterprises that would increase the output of workers, and more hoarded by corporations and Wall Street that have record amounts of cash holdings.
"U.S Corporations have some $4.5 trillion in cash and liquid reserves here and overseas, according to the St. Louis Fed, not being used productively . U.S. Banks still hold close to $1 trillion in excess reserves with the Fed in MZM accounts earning no interest."
More >>
When your customers are broke, you can't make sales.
/cdn0.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/3964280/roser_poverty_shares.png-large)
