A report shows that a $50 trillion redistribution of income to benefit the richest has made America less healthy, resilient, and secure
$1 Trillion of Wealth Was Created for the 19 Richest U.S. Households Last Year
Total household wealth for the richest 19 U.S. households jumped to about $2.6 trillion in 2024, after the biggest one-year increase on record.
The US economy is doing well. President Biden wants to know why so many Americans are still feeling bad | CNN Politics
By many metrics, the US economy is humming along. The jobs market is robust; consumers are spending again; and inflation has eased to a three-year low.
Do the Rich Capture All the Gains from Economic Growth?
Adjusted for inflation, the US economy has more than doubled in real terms since 1975.
Americans Want to Believe Jobs Are the Solution to Poverty. They’re Not. (Published 2018)
U.S. unemployment is down and jobs are going unfilled. But for people without much education, the real question is: Do those jobs pay enough to live on?
Is Dollar Dominance Good for the U.S.?
Thoughts on the U.S.'s so-called exorbitant privilege.
The persistence of cognitive biases in financial decisions across economic groups
While economic inequality continues to rise within countries, efforts to address it have been largely ineffective, particularly those involving behavioral approaches. It is often implied but not tested that choice patterns among low-income individuals may be a factor impeding behavioral interventions aimed at improving upward economic mobility. To test this, we assessed rates of ten cognitive biases across nearly 5000 participants from 27 countries. Our analyses were primarily focused on 1458 individuals that were either low-income adults or individuals who grew up in disadvantaged households but had above-average financial well-being as adults, known as positive deviants. Using discrete and complex models, we find evidence of no differences within or between groups or countries. We therefore conclude that choices impeded by cognitive biases alone cannot explain why some individuals do not experience upward economic mobility. Policies must combine both behavioral and structural interventions to improve financial well-being across populations.
Best of times, worst of times: record fossil-fuel profits, inflation and inequality
The 2022 oil and gas crisis resulted in record fossil-fuel profits globally that rehabilitated the oil and gas industry, obstructed the energy transition and contributed to inflation, but their magnitude and beneficiaries have been insufficiently understood. Here we show the size of profits across countries and their distribution across socio-economic groups within the United States, using company income statements, comprehensive ownership data and a network model for propagating profits via shareholdings. We estimate that globally, net income in publicly listed oil and gas companies alone reached US$916 billion in 2022, with the United States the biggest beneficiary with claims on US$301 billion, more than U.S. investments of US$267 billion in the low carbon economy that year. In a network of U.S. shareholdings with 252,433 nodes including privately held U.S. companies, 50 % of profits went to the wealthiest 1 % of individuals, predominantly through direct shareholdings and private company ownership. In contrast the bottom 50 % only received 1 %. The incremental U.S. fossil-fuel profits in 2022 relative to 2021 were enough to increase the disposable income of the wealthiest Americans by several percent and compensate a substantial part of their purchasing power loss from inflation that year, thereby exacerbating inflation inequality. These profits also reinforced existing racial and ethnic inequalities and inequalities between groups with different educational attainments. We discuss how an excess profit tax could be used to both lower inequality and accelerate the energy transition as increasing geopolitical tensions and climate impacts threaten continued volatility in oil and gas markets.
Why The Rich Think The Poor Are Lazy
Is Inequality Inevitable?
Wealth naturally trickles up in free-market economies, model suggests
Opinion | We’re Measuring the Economy All Wrong (Published 2018)
The official statistics say that the financial crisis is behind us. It's not.
Billionaire wealth jumps three times faster in 2025 to highest peak ever, sparking dangerous political inequality | Oxfam International
Billionaires 4,000 times more likely to hold political office than ordinary people
Trump made more than $1bn from crypto in first year back in office
The president's crypto income far outpaces his earnings from real estate and Trump-themed items such as watches.
Has America Wasted Its Wealth?
On Modern Philanthropy, And Why We Don't Have A Modern Florence
Billionaires Gone Wild
Understanding the oligarchs’ power grab and the dire threat to American democracy
