Just heard on NPR- income inequality and bank failures. Depression........ Reagan

[underpants]

As was noted on the broadcast income equality (bar graph on the bottom) increased as bank failures did (blue line) until bank regulation started during the great depression after which there was an almost negligble amount of both (WWII- 1980) THEN Reagan took office and both shot back up.


Very telling.


Income Inequality and Financial Crises
Published: August 21, 2010

David A. Moss, an economic and policy historian at the Harvard Business School, has spent years studying income inequality. While he has long believed that the growing disparity between the rich and poor was harmful to the people on the bottom, he says he hadn’t seen the risks to the world of finance, where many of the richest earn their great fortunes.

The possible connection between economic inequality and financial crises came to Mr. Moss about a year ago, when he was at his research center in Cambridge, Mass. A colleague suggested that he overlay two different graphs — one plotting financial regulation and bank failures, and the other charting trends in income inequality.

Mr. Moss says he was surprised by what he saw. The timelines danced in sync with each other. Income disparities between rich and poor widened as government regulations eased and bank failures rose.

“I could hardly believe how tight the fit was — it was a stunning correlation,” he said. “And it began to raise the question of whether there are causal links between financial deregulation, economic inequality and instability in the financial sector. Are all of these things connected?”


http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/22/weekinreview/22story.html

[senseandsensibility]

1. k and r but it's still at zero

The motive for unreccing this is a mystery to me.

[nilram]

12. 35 now.

[senseandsensibility]

14. I saw that.

The majority of DUers know what's going onnn.....:toast:

[russspeakeasy]

2. A stunning correlation indeed.

[ixion]

3. It's all by design

The old money wealth in the US was never satisfied with being regulated, and have been working since then to re-establish their ability to exploit everyone else.

They've succeed.

[Octafish]

4. Trickle down really works: Robin Hood in Reverse

Takes from the needy and gives it to the greedy.

[Cali_Democrat]

5. Fantastic article!

Numbers don't lie.

K&R

[underpants]

6. Predictably the NY Times falls all over itself to give both sides

Even going to the extreme and quoting his knucklehead

R. Glenn Hubbard, for instance, who was the top economic advisor to former President George W. Bush, said income inequality was not the culprit in the most recent crisis.

“Cars go faster every year, and G.D.P. rises every year, but that doesn’t mean speed causes G.D.P.,” said Mr. Hubbard, dean of the Columbia Business School and co-author of the coming book “Seeds of Destruction: Why the Path to Economic Ruin Runs Through Washington, and How to Reclaim American Prosperity.”

[endless october]

7. heard this on NPR this afternoon.

interesting stuff.

[kenny blankenship]

8. Deregulation -> Financialization of Economy -> Rigged Game, in which those with the most

at the beginning of play, take it all, and arrange the rules thereafter to make sure they keep it all.

It was ALWAYS a con. Unfortunately there are some high ranking people in the Democratic Party who either believe the con, or else disbelieve but are in on it, and intend to keep it going and profit.

[originalpckelly]

9. It is true. And it's not just that...

but it's more important to note that lowering of taxes happened around the same time, this too had an immense impact.

[moondust]

10. K/R

[RainDog]

11. k&r n/t

[GoCubsGo]

13. Like my dad says....

They'll do it every time. I'm not sure why Mr. Moss was so surprised. Same shit, different assholes.

[ldf]

15. sitting on a subway car, today, another rider had a

wall street journal.

facing me was the opinion page showing a long column with the headline "We Need Another Reagan".

appropriate, coming from a murdoch rag.

the "trickle down" concept means nothing more than: throw even more money at the filthy rich, and hope that we may be one of the ones to get hit by a little of the splatter from the "trickle".

it didn't work when st. ronnie did it, and the deck is stacked even more against us, now.

reagan resumed the destruction of this country previously started, along with the support of the bigots and so-called christians.

the democratic party leadership have been nothing but enablers, or cowards.

[tex-wyo-dem]

16. K&R! that is a stunning graph and great article, but...

Am I the only one who thinking: Well...DUH! Doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure this one out.

[applegrove]

17. Wow!