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My colleague David Brooks asserts that rising inequality is about productivity, not power. People used to say that a lot, but the preponderance of economic analysis has moved the other way, for good reasons 1/ nytimes.com/2020/01/16/opi…
Consider just one piece of data: CEO pay. Do we really thing CEOs have gotten hugely better since the 1960s, while workers haven't? 2/
Bear in mind that CEOs get lavishly rewarded even when they screw up massively. 3/ nytimes.com/2020/01/10/bus…
I'd add that even to the extent that free-market forces drive market inequality — which is dubious — tax and spending policy can offset much of this rise. Not doing so is a choice 4/
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Paul Krugman
@paulkrugman
As I was saying 1/ cnbc.com/2020/02/07/pen…
So basically Pence is confirming and endorsing my Friday column 2/ nytimes.com/2020/02/06/opi…
Here's the IMF's estimate of the structural budget balance: we're getting as much deficit stimulus now as in 2012, when the unemployment rate was 8% 3/
Read 5 tweets
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Paul Krugman
@paulkrugman
As I explained in today's column, Republicans hobbled the Obama economy in the name of fiscal responsibility, which they abandoned as soon as Trump came in. But how big a deal was that? 1/ nytimes.com/2020/02/06/opi…
Well, the Hutchins Center produces regular estimates of the impact of fiscal policy on growth, which shows the turn to austerity under Obama and the reversal under Trump 2/ brookings.edu/interactives/h…
Contractionary fiscal policy began in 2011I, when Rs took the House. I took the cumulative impact on growth, and the implied effect on the unemployment rate (assuming 1% GDP = 0.5% unemployment, which is standard). Here's what it looks like 3/
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Paul Krugman
@paulkrugman
The huge decline in the number of uninsured under Obamacare is in large part (more than half) due to the expansion of Medicaid 1/
Now Trump is trying to strangle Medicaid by converting it into block grants that won't keep up with rising costs 2/ washingtonpost.com/outlook/2020/0…
Oh, and the lies the administration is deploying to claim that this isn't a cut are the same as the arguments Newt Gingrich used to pretend that he wasn't trying to strangle Medicare in 1995. Zombies, zombies, everywhere 3/
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Ashish Barua #MMT 📈📊
@barua_ashish
@arthur_eckart @jlounsbury59 @AuburnParks @stf18 @mcgilcoli @FadhelKaboub @GaneshHegde7 @tonywestonuk @sashi31363 @StephanieKelton @tymoignee @pdacosta @GaelicTorus Hope you have gone through this part of the article as well - Here’s an example. As many economists have lately been pointing out, these days the old story about rising inequality, in which it was driven by a growing premium on skill, has lost whatever relevance it may have had.
@arthur_eckart @jlounsbury59 @AuburnParks @stf18 @mcgilcoli @FadhelKaboub @GaneshHegde7 @tonywestonuk @sashi31363 @StephanieKelton @tymoignee @pdacosta @GaelicTorus Since around 2000, the big story has, instead, been one of a sharp shift in the distribution of income away from wages in general, and toward profits. But here’s the puzzle: Since profits are high while borrowing costs are low, why aren’t we seeing a boom in business investment?
@arthur_eckart @jlounsbury59 @AuburnParks @stf18 @mcgilcoli @FadhelKaboub @GaneshHegde7 @tonywestonuk @sashi31363 @StephanieKelton @tymoignee @pdacosta @GaelicTorus And, no, investment isn’t depressed because President Obama has hurt the feelings of business leaders or because they’re terrified by the prospect of universal health insurance.

Well, there’s no puzzle here if rising profits reflect rents, not returns on investment.
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daktre
@prashanthns
A thread on some quotes from @gautambhatia88’s “The transformative constitution “In equality jurisprudence, the approach of focusing on the disproportionately exclusionary impact if politics rather than their formal character or motive is known as disparate impact”
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An test for entry may be “neutral” but yet exclude by aligning with exclusionary institutions; if an physical entrance test for firefighter includes activities not necessary for fulfilling duties and unintentionally poses #gender-barriers, deserves to be struck down. #NoteToSelf
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The Justin Horton Show
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David Aaronovitch's train is late. He is reminded of how trains were late in the old Soviet Union.
David Aaronvitch joins the checkout queue. He is reminded of how people used to queue for bread, in the old Soviet Union.
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Doc Rock ❌
@chbstone2
The professional politicians have done an excellent job of splitting up the issues to keep the citizens fighting with each other so we don’t focus on the fact that they are the problem, not us.
The professional wrestling promoters know that good fighting evil and prompting the audience to be involved in the action will keep people engaged. Our career politicians know it, too.

Without a crisis to engage the public, the career politician is less significant.

#TermLimits
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Both sides do it

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Economic Policy Institute
@EconomicPolicy
NEW REPORT: Wage #inequality marches on—and is even threatening data reliability epi.org/161043 by @eliselgould
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Heather Boushey
@HBoushey
In light of the new @iteptweets report (if you haven’t already, read it here itep.org/federal-tax-cu…), a thread on rising inequality & how effective tax policy can address it 1/15
As @PikettyLeMonde, @gabriel_zucman & @berkeley_olab’s Emmanuel Saez have shown, the bottom half of the income distribution has been completely shut off from economic gains since the 1970s
equitablegrowth.org/economic-growt… 2/15
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121% for the top 10%
205% for the top 1%
636% for the top .001%

and a whopping 1% for the bottom 50% gabriel-zucman.eu/files/PSZ2018Q… 3/15
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