Free Republic

In his State of the Union Address on Tuesday night, President Barack Obama is expected to take sharp aim at wealth inequality. He'll propose a hike in the minimum wage, extended unemployment benefits, and more funding for education and skills improvement. He is also likely to contribute to several persistent myths about the increasing gap between the rich and everyone else. There is no question that income inequality in America is high compared with other countries as well as with the three decades in the U.S. after World War II. And a consensus is growing among business leaders, politicians and...

A Leftist is someone who advocates marriage for homosexuals but opposes it for heterosexuals. Recently, Ari Fleischer, a press spokesman for George W. Bush, responded to the current administration’s newfound desire to fight the plague of “income inequality”—which has spread more under Barack Obama than under any other recent president—by stating the obvious: that marriage is good economic medicine. “`Marriage inequality’ should be at the center of any discussion of why some Americans prosper and others don’t,” Fleischer said. “According to Census Bureau information analyzed by the Beverly LaHaye Institute, among families headed by two married parents in 2012, just...

Maybe France's President François Hollande's publicly revealed, private personal indiscretions (ok, maybe in France they're not considered indiscretions but standard operating domestic procedures) also prompted him to publicly question the standard operating procedures of France's socialist economy.  With French unemployment officially at over 10.5%, unofficially probably higher, Hollande put on his clothes, slunk out of his latest female friend's apartment and stood before the national enquiring minds of not only the French press but the international media as well, plaintively asking: "How can we run a country if entrepreneurs don't hire?" he said. "And how can we redistribute if there's...

The World Economic Forum says the gap between the rich and the poor is the most likely risk to the global economy in coming years. In its annual risk assessment ahead of next week's gathering of political and business leaders in Davos, Switzerland, the World Economic Forum says income disparity in the wake of the global financial crisis is the "most likely risk to cause an impact on a global scale in the next decade." It warns of a "lost generation" of young people coming of age in the current decade that could hamper the global economic recovery and stoke...

In 1900, we had no airplanes, no computers, no cellphones, no internet. We had only rudimentary versions of cars, trucks, telephones, even cameras.But in the last century, 1900 to 2000, as Stephen Moore and Julian L. Simon report in their underappreciated work, It’s Getting Better All the Time: 100 Greatest Trends of the Last 100 Years, real per capita GDP in the U.S. grew by nearly 7 times, meaning the American standard of living grew by that much as well. The authors explain,“It is hard for us to imagine, for example, that in 1900 less than one in five homes...

President Obama considers income inequality a “defining challenge of our time.” Continuing from my previous column ( “Questions for redistribution's proponents” ), I have some additional questions for Mr. Obama and others who want government to redistribute more income from “the rich” to “the poor.” • When you describe growing income inequality in the United States, you typically look only at the incomes of the rich before they pay taxes and at the incomes of the poor before they receive noncash transfers from government such as food stamps, Medicare and Medicaid. You also ignore noncash transfers that the poor receive...

You don't get something for nothing, You can't have freedom for free, You won't get wise, With the sleep still in your eyes, No matter what your dreams might be, “Something for Nothing” ... The biggest obstacle to economic recovery is ignorance, among the public and in Congress. Even reasonable proposals like those advanced by DeLong are basically frozen out by the strange logic that currently holds sway inside the White House and within the FOMC. In both cases, the idea of real debt restructuring and economic revival is shunned in favor of policy stasis and financial repression. The current...

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...

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) said earlier this week that his administration will consider ending the personal income tax as part of a major review of the state’s tax structure. In comments first reported by WisPolitics.com, Walker told reporters at a stop in Pembine that some states without personal income taxes are in better economic shape and are better equipped to compete for jobs. “There are many states that do very well, better than most states in the country, that have no income taxes,” Walker said, according to WisPolitics. “That’s one thing for us to look at. Is that feasible?...

Last week we got our monthly insult from the Bureau of Labor Statistics telling us unemployment is down to 7.0%. The truth behind the BLS’s fake number is that when Americans are so sick and tired of trying to find work and give up in despair, using Soviet style logic, the government declares them nonpersons and refuses to count them as unemployed. If there was a touch of honesty in these announcements the true unemployment rate would be 11.5%. The percentage of Americans who are working is startlingly low at just 58.6%. During the contrived “Bush recession” the rate was...

The rich are paying even more in taxes than you think.According to a Congressional Budget Office report this week, America’s top 40 percent of earners pay 106 percent of the taxes and the bottom 40 percent pay negative 9 percent, reports CNBC.How can one group pay more than 100 percent and another group pay less than zero? The formula that the CBO uses offsets taxes that are paid with refundable tax credits. These include money the government transfers back to the taxpayer for food stamps and social programs.Some low-income Americans received very generous subsidies. The report shows that Americans who...

Income Gap: As President Obama laments America's growing income inequality, a new government report shows the futility of his calls for ever-more wealth redistribution. To deflect attention from ObamaCare's failures, the president this month trotted out his income inequality chestnut. "A dangerous and growing inequality," he intoned, "has jeopardized middle-class America's basic bargain." He argued, "as a trickle-down ideology became more prominent, taxes were slashed for the wealthiest, while investments in things that make us all richer, like schools and infrastructure, were allowed to wither." Apparently, nobody bothered to brief the president before he delivered this speech. Fact is, federal...

(CNSNews.com) - The top 40 percent of households by before-tax income actually paid 106.2 percent of the nation’s net income taxes in 2010, according to a new study by the Congressional Budget Office.At the same time, households in the bottom 40 percent took in an average of $18,950 in what the CBO called “government transfers” in 2010.Taxpayers in the top 40percent of households were able to pay more than 100 percent of net federal income taxes in 2010 because Americans in the bottom 40 percent actually paid negative income taxes, according to the CBO study entitled, “The Distribution of Household...

Fully 20 percent of U.S. adults become rich for parts of their lives, wielding extensive influence over America's economy and politics, according to new survey data. These "new rich," made up largely of older professionals, working married couples and more educated singles, are becoming politically influential, and economists say their capacity to spend is key to the U.S. economic recovery. But their rise is also a sign of the nation's continuing economic polarization. They extend well beyond the wealthiest 1 percent, a traditional group of super-rich millionaires and billionaires with long-held family assets. The new rich have household income of...

There are cheers from the media about the latest jobs report. While some speculated that it was so good that The Fed would begin tapering their assets purchases, few noticed that the 10 year Treasury yield actually fell on the jobs report. But let’s look at the longer term picture. House prices are rising rapidly despite declining real median household income. Problem 1: Labor’s share of nonfarm business have been falling for decades, but it’s decline has been accelerating since 2000. laborsharelt No problem, many economists say. The U.S. has been moving towards a service economy for decades. But, …...

While foreclosure activity as a whole has been declining in the U.S., there are still some unnerving aspects to the housing and mortgage recovery. So, it’s time for “The Good, The Bad and The Ugly.” The good. According to RealtyTac, overall U.S. foreclosure activity is down 23 percent year-to-date through October 2013. The bad. Foreclosure activity on properties in the $5 million-plus value range is up 61 percent from the same time period in 2012. And most of it is concentrated in Florida and Los Angeles. I designate Atlanta as an honorary coastal city since Georgia does have properties on...

President Obama will cast growing income inequality and a decline in economic mobility as a “fundamental threat to the American dream” during a speech Wednesday in Washington. The speech will serve as an early preview for next year’s State of the Union address, according to a White House official, who said Obama would focus much of his energy over the next three years on the issue. “The decisions we make over the next few years will determine whether or not our children will grow up in an America where, if you work hard, you can get ahead,” the official said.

“Go West, young man” is a popular quote from Horace Greeley in 1865. “Washington is not a place to live in. The rents are high, the food is bad, the dust is disgusting and the morals are deplorable. Go West, young man, go West and grow up with the country.” – Horace Greeley I see much hasn’t changed since 1865, but Greeley’s advice was wrong if we look at real median household income. The blue line is for the nation as a whole, the red line is for Washington DC. realmedhi So, go east young man, if you want to...

Boris Johnson, the mayor of London, caused a flap where he pronounced that some people are too stupid to get ahead. But unless people are getting more stupid over time, it is likely bad government policies that are preventing people from getting ahead. Government policies including the Fed monetary expansion have seemingly made matters worse for the average American family. Particularly since 2007. The GINI coefficent is a measure of income distribution in country. And it has been skyrocketing since 2007 when Democrats took control of Congress and 2009 when they achieved a majority in both the House and Senate...

Government policies including the Fed monetary expansion have seemingly made matters worse for the average American family. Particularly since 2007. The GINI coefficent is a measure of income distribution in country. And it has been skyrocketing since 2007 when Democrats took control of Congress and 2009 when they achieved a majority in both the House and Senate AND the Presidency. But for all the talk of income redistribution and “leveling the playing field,” things have only gotten worse for the average American household. Here is the GINI coefficent for the USA since 2005. Note the decline from 2006 to 2007,...