Morning Must-Read: Steven Fazzari: Rising Income Inequality Set the Stage for the Great Recession
Steven Fazzari: Rising Income Inequality Set the Stage for the Great Recession:
During the “Consumer Age” period from the early 1980s through 2007, much of U.S. demand growth was generated by the rapid growth of consumer spending financed by unprecedented increases in household debt…. The debt-income ratio for households… was stable from 1960 through 1983 and then began to increase…. This correspondence was not a coincidence: rising income inequality was a central factor that led to increased household debt and therefore to the forces that created the housing bubble and, finally, the Great Recession…