Posts Tagged ‘inequality’
Charts, Comix, Columnists
(1) Incredible Charts from BusinessInsider: Hat-tip to Arjun Jayadev, who inaugurated the series of teach-ins we’ve been organizing for #OccupyBoston, for alerting us to anincredible slideshow of charts, Here’s What the Wall Street Protesters Are So Angry About, at the odd website BusinessInsider (odd because though it appears to be an ordinary personal investment site, ...Read more.
What Drives the War on Drugs?
First it was the Dominican limo driver, who disappeared while driving a client upstate. When my husband extracted him from Utica jail a month later, it turned out he’d been arrested on bogus drug charges, and his limo confiscated. Then it was a friend, set up for a drug bust by his ex-wife, to gain ...Read more.
Restore the Original Wealth Tax (Polly Cleveland)
To Save Essential Public Services, Restore the Original Wealth Tax! By Polly Cleveland, on January 17th, 2011 State and local officials propose drastic cuts in public services. There’s an alternative: restore the property tax. It’s the oldest wealth tax of all, the tax that financed Chinese civilization over 2000 years ago, the tax that until ...Read more.
QE2, London Protests, Banks in Trouble
(1) More on QE2: Here is an amusing video (hat-tip to Steve Schnapp of United for a Fair Economy, our neighbors and landlords). I think it is hilarious, though I think some of the points it makes are questionable. E.g. I think the fear of inflation isn’t warranted, and that there really are deflationary pressures. ...Read more.
Various items
(1) Emmanuel Saez wins a MacArthur fellowship. With co-author Thomas Piketty, Saez has done great research on income inequality in the United States. Read about the fellowship here. An accessible version of their research here. Who knew he was only 37? I guess younger than me no longer counts as particularly young, alas… (2) D&S ...Read more.
Magic Mushrooms
It had been a rainy summer in Colorado. No surprise to find mushrooms as we hiked the Andrews Glacier trail in Rocky Mountain National Park. But these mushrooms! Three inches across, deep crimson with white splotches, glowing in the mountain sunlight! Amanita muscaria, the original deadly toadstool, the mushroom of fairytales, Alice in Wonderland’s mushroom. ...Read more.
Income Inequality and Financial Crises, NYT, Aug 21
A New York Times article by Louise Story asks, “Do widening gaps between rich and poor necessarily lead to financial crises?” (Aug. 21) The answer is yes, for a reason observed over 100 years ago by American economist and reformer Henry George: Economic growth enhances the value of titles to real estate and other natural ...Read more.
