U.S. economic inequality increases to pre-Great-Depression levels.

Fiona Sydney

2019-02-17 14:40:00 Sun ET

U.S. economic inequality increases to pre-Great-Depression levels. U.C. Berkeley economics professor Gabriel Zucman empirically finds that the top 0.1% richest adults own about 25% of total household wealth in America (in accordance with a similar economic inequality situation back in the 1920s).

When we broaden the core definition of the upper socioeconomic echelon, the top 1% richest households own 40% of national wealth as of 2016. This high wealth share compares with the 25%-30% thresholds back in the 1980s. Over the past 30 years, the bottom 90% household wealth share has significantly declined in similar proportions. Russia is the only comparable country with similar wealth inequality. The current Zucman empirical study resonates with the main themes of persistent global economic inequality in the recent book, Capital in the new century, written by Thomas Piketty. The root causes of U.S. income and wealth inequality include information technology adoption, elite education, high-skill human capital shortage, and talent concentration.

The government can design affordable college and graduate school education for young adults to better prepare for their vocational pursuits. Ubiquitous information technology adoption allows fresh talents to better appreciate the knowledge-driven productivity gains from robotic automation, artificial intelligence, and smart data analysis etc.

 


If any of our AYA Analytica financial health memos (FHM), blog posts, ebooks, newsletters, and notifications etc, or any other form of online content curation, involves potential copyright concerns, please feel free to contact us at service@ayafintech.network so that we can remove relevant content in response to any such request within a reasonable time frame.

Blog+More

Harvard financial economist Alberto Cavallo empirically shows the recent *Amazon effect* of faster retail price adjustments.

Amy Hamilton

2018-08-23 11:34:00 Thursday ET

Harvard financial economist Alberto Cavallo empirically shows the recent *Amazon effect* of faster retail price adjustments.

Harvard financial economist Alberto Cavallo empirically shows the recent *Amazon effect* that online retailers such as Amazon, Alibaba, and eBay etc use fas

+See More

Apple is now the world's biggest dividend payer with its $13 billion dividend payout.

Dan Rochefort

2017-04-19 17:37:00 Wednesday ET

Apple is now the world's biggest dividend payer with its $13 billion dividend payout.

Apple is now the world's biggest dividend payer with its $13 billion dividend payout and surpasses ExxonMobil's dividend payout record. Despite the

+See More

Global trade transforms from labor cost arbitrage to high-skill knowledge work.

Laura Hermes

2019-01-29 10:33:00 Tuesday ET

Global trade transforms from labor cost arbitrage to high-skill knowledge work.

Global trade transforms from labor cost arbitrage to high-skill knowledge work. In fact, multinational manufacturers have been trying to create global suppl

+See More

Amy Chua and Jed Rubenfeld suggest that relatively successful ethnic groups exhibit common cultural traits in America.

Laura Hermes

2023-05-21 12:26:00 Sunday ET

Amy Chua and Jed Rubenfeld suggest that relatively successful ethnic groups exhibit common cultural traits in America.

Amy Chua and Jed Rubenfeld suggest that relatively successful ethnic groups exhibit common cultural traits in America. Amy Chua and Jed Rubenfeld (2015)

+See More

Platform enterprises leverage network effects, scale economies, and information cascades to boost exponential user growth.

Fiona Sydney

2020-05-28 15:37:00 Thursday ET

Platform enterprises leverage network effects, scale economies, and information cascades to boost exponential user growth.

Platform enterprises leverage network effects, scale economies, and information cascades to boost exponential business growth. Laure Reillier and Benoit

+See More

Joel Mokyr suggests that economic growth arises from a change in cultural beliefs toward technological progress.

John Fourier

2023-11-07 11:31:00 Tuesday ET

Joel Mokyr suggests that economic growth arises from a change in cultural beliefs toward technological progress.

Joel Mokyr suggests that economic growth arises from a change in cultural beliefs toward technological progress. Joel Mokyr (2018)   A culture

+See More