Should-Read: Paul Krugman: The Political Failure of Trickle-Down Economics

Should-Read: I am not as confident as Paul is that Paul’s numbers here are the right numbers to look at: I do not know how much wealth accumulation escapes the income stream measurement, but I suspect it is a lot more than escaped back in the 1970s:

Paul Krugman: The Political Failure of Trickle-Down Economics: “We tend to think of the period since Reagan’s election as a conservative era… https://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2017/08/20/the-political-failure-of-trickle-down-economics/

…lots of centrist Dems willing to cooperate with R agendas… at the end of the Obama years taxation of the rich was pretty much back where it was pre-Reagan…. A welfare state supported by progressive taxation has been much more robust than the year-by-year political narrative might lead you to think.

But in that case, why the incredible surge in inequality?…. There is, I think, a good case to be made that things like the collapse of unions and financial deregulation mattered a lot more than the taxing and spending issues we spend so much time talking about…

September 8, 2017

AUTHORS:

Brad DeLong
Connect with us!

Explore the Equitable Growth network of experts around the country and get answers to today's most pressing questions!

Get in Touch