[lbo-talk] Piketty quote

michael yates mikedjyates at msn.com
Sun Jun 29 11:34:58 PDT 2014


In describing the tremendous rise in the share of US income

growth accruing to the richest .1% of income recipients between

2000 and 2010, Piketty reports that

"Recent research , based on matching declared income on tax

returns with corporate compensation records, allows me to

state that the vast majority (60 to 70 percent, depending on

what definitions one chooses) of the top 0.1 percent of the

income hierarchy in 2000– 2010 consists of top managers. By

comparison , athletes, actors, and artists of all kinds make

up less than 5 percent of this group. In this sense, the

new US inequality has much more to do with the advent of

'supermanagers'” than with that of 'superstars.'”

In 2001, that fraudulent hack Martin Feldstein argued in the

New York Times that

“Why there has been increasing inequality in this country is one of

the big puzzles in our field and has absorbed a lot of intellectual

effort.” But, this effort has apparently been wasted, since he

goes on to say, “But if you ask me whether we should worry about

the fact that some people on Wall Street and basketball players

are making a lot of money, I say no.”

I guess Feldstein never was too good with numbers, given his bullshit

"work" on the harmful impact of social security on capital formation.

No wonder Piketty said that US economists know nothing about anything.



More information about the lbo-talk mailing list