About Those Income Inequality Statistics. An answer to Paul Krugman.

WSJ ^ | 1-3-14 | Bret Stephens

[TurboZamboni]

Let me do something New York Times NYT -0.13% New York Times Co. Cl A U.S.: NYSE $15.60 -0.02 -0.13% Jan. 3, 2014 4:04 pm Volume (Delayed 15m) : 1.23M AFTER HOURS $15.60 0.00 0.00% Jan. 3, 2014 4:21 pm Volume (Delayed 15m): 1,136 P/E Ratio 5662.71 Market Cap $2.34 Billion Dividend Yield 1.03% Rev. per Employee $352,201 12/19/13 New York Times to Introduce 'P... 12/13/13 What Your CEO Is Reading: Goog... 12/06/13 U.S. Media Firms Stymied in Ch... More quote details and news » NYT in Your Value Your Change Short position columnist Paul Krugman isn't exactly famous for doing, at least not graciously: acknowledge a mistake.

In my Dec. 31 column on income inequality, I used a data set from the U.S. Census Bureau to make the case that incomes in the U.S. have been growing across the board, even if the incomes of the wealthy have grown faster than those of others further down the income scale. But I wrote those lines looking at a set of numbers that had not been adjusted for inflation.

Professor Krugman, in a post on his New York Times blog, takes me to task for this. Had I done so looking at the inflation-adjusted table, it would have shown the incomes of the bottom 20% essentially stagnating since 1979...

[Prov1322]

Great last paragraph...

None of this is to excuse the fact that I goofed in my use of data. My apologies. As for Mr. Krugman, he should bear in mind something the public editor of the New York Times once said about him: "Paul Krugman has the disturbing habit of shaping, slicing and selectively citing numbers in a fashion to please his acolytes but leaves him open to substantive assaults."

[G Larry]

“income for poor households grew by 18%,”

They forgot to mention that the people who actually make up “poor households”, are NOT THE SAME PEOPLE, YEAR AFTER YEAR!!!!

Many people GROW OUT OF THE “poor household” status, and become “middle income”!!!

Imagine that!!!