Miscellaneous material to start your week. – David Leonhardt discusses how the U.S.’ tax system has become definitively regressive, featuring this chart as to how the wealthiest few now pay a smaller share of their income than anybody else. – Ann Pettifor highlights how society suffers when rentier capitalism is
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Accidental Deliberations: Sunday Afternoon Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Paul Barratt discusses the results of a roundtable addressing inequality in Australia – with plenty of lessons worth keeping in mind elsewhere: …(I)nequality is increasing significantly in Australia and, without a change in public policy, the problem will continue to worsen. Australia’s
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Elizabeth Piper reports on Jeremy Corbyn’s much-needed declaration that under a Labour government, the financial sector will serve the public rather than the other way around. And George Monbiot comments on the role the left needs to play in reversing the accumulation
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This and that for your Thursday reading. – Larry Elliott discusses how the stock market is reacting with disgust against rare good economic news for workers and the general public. Asher Schechter interviews Angus Deaton about the connection between monopolies, rent-seeking and burgeoning inequality. And Bill Kerry writes that we
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Stephanie Blankenburg and Richard Kozul-Wright comment on the rise of rent-seeking as a driver of stagnation and inequality. And George Monbiot argues that we shouldn’t let our common wealth be used for the sole benefit of a privileged few: A true commons is
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This and that for your Thursday reading. – Sarah O’Connor examines the inconsistent relationship between job quantity and quality as another example of how it’s misleading to think of policy choices solely in terms of the number of jobs generated. Angela Monaghan discusses how wages continue to stagnate in the
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Rutger Bregman writes that the most extreme wealth in our economy is based on rents rather than productivity: In reality, it is the waste collectors, the nurses, and the cleaners whose shoulders are supporting the apex of the pyramid. They are the true
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Afternoon Links
Assorted content for your long weekend reading.- Marc Jarsulic, Ethan Gurwitz, Kate Bahn and Andy Green comment on how corporate monopoly power and rent-seeking produce disastrous public consequences:Income inequality is rising, middle-class incomes ar…
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: We’re All Neoliberals Now. Let’s Change That.
One thing that struck home during our extended election campaign was how our mainstream political parties have become deeply invested in neoliberalism. While it has several descriptions, reflective of its insidious vagueness, neoliberalism is the merger of political and economic ideology most often called “free market fundamentalism.” It is a
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – thwap highlights the cycle of austerity, stagnation and decline that’s marked the past few decades across much of the developed world. And Thomas Walkom recognizes that the economy is actually one of the Cons’ most glaring weaknesses – at least, if one thinks
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Linda McQuaig highlights how attacks on workers are used to distract attention from the systematic transfer of wealth to those who need it least: As long as the right can keep workers envious and suspicious of each other, the focus won’t be on
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