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… The downfall of manufacturing in the U.S. has done more than displace workers and leave communities searching for ways to rebuild devastated economies. In Reading and other American factory towns, manufacturing’s decline is a key factor in the widening income gap between the rich and everyone else […] “A loss of manufacturing has contributed to the decline of the middle class,” said Howard Wial, an economist with the Brookings Institution and the University of Illinois at Chicago. “People who are displaced from high-paying manufacturing jobs spend a long time unemployed, and when they take other jobs, those jobs generally...

President Obama says he wants to focus his administration´s efforts on closing the income gap between rich and poor, and Republicans in Congress have vowed to make immigration reform a top priority this year. Both are wildly out of touch with the American public, according to the latest IBD/TIPP Poll. When asked which should be a top priority of the president and Congress, 49% say the economy and jobs. Another 16% say it should be the national debt. Nine percent name national security. Just 6% list income inequality as a top priority, and the same minuscule share say it should...

Despite his best efforts, the president who vowed to conquer Wall Street and revive opportunity for everyday Americans on Main Street has this to show for his first five years in office: U.S. stock markets are in record territory, posting 30 percent gains just last year, and Wall Street is home once again to the biggest concentration of billionaires on earth, while wages for the middle class have barely kept up with inflation. As President Obama prepares to lay out an economic agenda to address this disappointing state of affairs in his State of the Union address this month, his...

GALESBURG, Ill. — In a week when he tried to focus attention on the struggles of the middle class, President Obama said in an interview that he was worried that years of widening income inequality and the lingering effects of the financial crisis had frayed the country’s social fabric and undermined Americans’ belief in opportunity. Upward mobility, Mr. Obama said in a 40-minute interview with The New York Times, “was part and parcel of who we were as Americans.” “And that’s what’s been eroding over the last 20, 30 years, well before the financial crisis,” he added. “If we don’t...

China promises millions of low-cost homes BEIJING – China's government will spend nearly $200 billion this year to build 10 million low-cost homes, a Cabinet official said Wednesday, amid efforts to spread the benefits of economic growth to the poor and rein in surging housing prices. Beijing has unveiled an array of measures including higher wages and subsidies as part of ambitious promises to narrow a politically volatile gulf between rich and poor and transform a nation of farmers and factory workers into a consumer society.

Hold the Champagne on China’s Economy By Michael Auslin Thursday, October 22, 2009 Filed under: World Watch, Boardroom, Economic Policy Those who witnessed Japan's spectacular rise and fall in the 1980s should get a familiar feeling watching China these days. This month in Hong Kong, a single bottle of wine sold at auction for $93,000 to a Chinese buyer. No matter how good the vintage, that's not something to pop a cork over and celebrate. Those who witnessed Japan's spectacular rise and fall in the 1980s should be getting a familiar feeling watching China these days. In the eyes of...

The deepest downturn in the U.S. economy since the Great Depression may finally shrink the gap between the very best-off Americans and everyone else. If so, it won't be by lifting up the bottom. It will be by pulling down the top.

Senator Barack Obama says the top priority of the next president should be to create a more lasting and equitable prosperity than achieved by either President Bush in the current decade or even Bill Clinton in the 1990s. In an hourlong interview outlining his economic views, Mr. Obama praised the Clinton administration for reducing the deficit and setting the stage for the ’90s boom. But he said Mr. Clinton had failed to halt a long-term increase in income inequality that had left the middle class feeling squeezed. If elected, Mr. Obama said he would to try to forge a popular...

A few years ago, Bill Cosby set off a fire-storm with a speech excoriating his fellow African-Americans for, among other things, buying $500 sneakers instead of educational toys for their children. In a recent book, Come On People, he repeats his argument that black Americans spend too much money on designer clothes and fancy cars, and don't invest sufficiently in their futures. Many in the black community have been critical of Cosby for blaming poor people rather than poor public policies. Others have defended Cosby's comments as an honest expression of uncomfortable truths. But notably absent from the Cosby affair...

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - President Vicente Fox paused for a long moment before answering a question on how long it would take Mexico to reach a stage where citizens no longer want to cross the U.S. border to seek work. "Generations," he finally said. "It's a long way to narrow the gap ... between incomes in Mexico and on the other side of the border," he said in a recent interview with Reuters. That income gap is the principal reason why hundreds of thousands of Mexicans cross the border with the U.S. illegally to seek work -- yet it rarely...

Please Do Your JobRussell Roberts The headline: Study Finds Rich-Poor Income Gap Growing The story by Mark Johnson of the Associated Press begins: The disparity between rich and poor is growing in America as the federal minimum wage has remained flat for years, union membership has declined and industries have faced global competition, according to a study released Thursday. Interesting.  Let me try a different first sentence: The disparity between rich and poor is growing in America as the Red Sox won their first World Series in 86 years, Mars came very close to the earth and the global frog...

China's widening income gap threatening social stability: governmentMon Aug 22, 1:17 AM ET BEIJING (AFP) - China's rapidly widening income gap has reached dangerous levels, risking social instability by 2010 if the present trend continues, a government report warns. "China's growing income gap is likely to trigger social instability after 2010 if the government finds no effective solutions to end the disparity," the Ministry of Labour and Social Security warned in the China Daily. Su Hainan, president of the ministry's income research institute, found income disparity in China had reached the crucial "yellow" stage -- the second most serious in...

Incomes are growing smartly for the first time in years, spurring unexpectedly robust spending by consumers. The revival, however, is mainly among top earners who receive stocks, bonuses and other income in addition to wages. The nearly 80 percent of Americans who rely mostly on hourly wages barely maintained their purchasing power, according to the Labor Department. Raises have been meager, averaging about 2.7 percent in the past year -- a tad above the 2.5 percent inflation rate. Incomes are up a more robust 7.5 percent when bonuses, stock compensation, commissions and other wage supplements are added, according to the...

Japanese companies warned of China risks By Mariko Sanchanta in Tokyo Published: July 2 2005 03:00 | Last updated: July 2 2005 03:00 Japanese companies should rely less on China, because of its political and microeconomic risks, and increase production in countries of the Association of South East Asian Nations, the trade ministry said in its annual white paper yesterday. "We believe there are many risks that may prevent foreign and Japanese firms from keeping their operations [in China]. We want to be whistle-blowers about these risks," said Susumu Okamoto, a deputy director in the trade policy bureau at the...

WASHINGTON - Over two decades, the income gap has steadily increased between the richest Americans, who own homes and stocks and got big tax breaks, and those at the middle and bottom of the pay scale, whose paychecks buy less. The growing disparity is even more pronounced in this recovering economy. Wages are stagnant and the middle class is shouldering a larger tax burden. Prices for health care, housing, tuition, gas and food have soared. The wealthiest 20 percent of households in 1973 accounted for 44 percent of total U.S. income, according to the Census Bureau (news - web sites)....