Weekend reading

This is a weekly post we’ll publish every Friday with links to articles we think anyone interested in equitable growth should read. We won’t be the first to share these articles, but we hope by taking a look back at the whole week we can put them in context.

The American family

Stephanie Coontz on how the American family has been affected by increasing gender equality and rising income inequality [nyt]

Economic geography

Emily Badger on how more and more Americans are living with the ‘double burden’ of concentrated poverty [wonkblog]

Is wage growth picking up?

The release of new data from the Employment Cost Index raised the possibility of significantly higher wage growth. But Cardiff Garcia points out that the increase probably isn’t something to get worked up over [ft alphaville]

University of Oregon professor Tim Duy agrees [tim duy’s fed watch]

Dean Bakers notes that the increase in the second quarter could be just a correction from growth in the first quarter and the trend growth is just the same as before. [beat the press]

And is the situation of the long-term unemployed getting better?

Ben Casselman is skeptical about the research showing the long-term unemployed are getting jobs [fivethirtyeight]

The pros and cons of financial leverage

According to one measure, China’s systematic financial risk is at an all-time high [econbrowser]

Owning a home can be a good investment for people without access to a large amount of capital by providing leverage [squarelyrooted]

But having your home foreclosed on, or living in a neighborhood with many foreclosures, is associated with increased health threats according to research from Janet Currie [the hill]

Gilded consumption

Lydia DePillis on how the consumption of the rich might raise wages and create an snowball effect that increases inequality even more [wonkblog]