income inequality
Monday numbers: A closer look at the rapid and stunning growth of the super-rich
While the COVID-19 pandemic and the economic recession it spawned have taken a huge toll on low and middle-income people across the globe, most members of the very exclusive club frequently referred to as the “super-rich” have been doing just fine, thank you. In fact, a recent report prepared by veteran policy analyst Chuck Collins of the Institute for Policy Studies for the website Inequality.org, put it this way...
Weekend humor from Celia Rivenbark: A modest proposal for the world’s rapacious billionaires
I have a modest proposal for how to deal with the tax cheats named in the “Pandora Papers” — that jaw-dropping global investigation into the bank accounts of some of the world’s richest people. Journalists in 117 countries spent years examining more than 12 million documents and discovered what we have long suspected: Journalists almost […]
Working family tax credits are the tax break we need
The richest 5% of North Carolina households have an average income 28 times greater than the poorest fifth. More than half of the income in our state in 2018 was held by the wealthiest 20% of North Carolinians. In 2019, before the start of the pandemic, almost one in three North Carolinians lived below 200% of […]
New report: CEO pay has reached truly absurd and unjust levels
A new report from researchers Lawrence Mishel and Jori Kandra the Economic Policy Institute has the latest disturbing news about the way our nation continues to allow a narrow class of plutocrats to make off with a vast portion of its wealth. The report finds that, even compared to the other members of the top […]
NC needs to fix its tax code to secure a just recovery — for everyone
As North Carolina looks to chart a path forward and out of the pandemic’s damaging impacts on people, communities, and the economy, tax policy choices will matter to building toward a more inclusive economy. To ensure a just recovery, we must fix our upside-down tax code and ensure that everyone can thrive, not just a wealthy few. Signs […]
People power scores an important win vs. inequality
WASHINGTON – Unless you tuned out Donald Trump on his final frenetic campaign blitz, you remember seeing him barnstorming across Florida, stoking the fears of Latino voters with his nightmare threat that Joe Biden & Company would “turn America into Communist Cuba or Socialist Venezuela.” Fearmongering pure and simple, but it worked with a big […]
Billionaires are getting even richer during COVID-19
Many corporate titans have profited handsomely from the COVID-19 pandemic. Even while the death count rises, millions of American families struggle to make ends meet, and main street businesses shutter, some of the biggest companies in our country have recorded record profits. Corporate windfalls from this catastrophe have further concentrated wealth in a few hands […]
Veteran journalist: It’s time to make billionaires pay their fair share
WASHINGTON – While you and I have focused on the economic havoc of job losses and small businesses shutting down because of the pandemic, we missed noticing that the tiny sliver of super-super-rich at the apex of our economy was simultaneously amassing astronomical fortunes, thanks to the pandemic. A surprise perhaps because that scenario runs […]
For many in NC, the economic picture remains bleak
As the COVID-19 pandemic rages on, North Carolina families continue to face difficulty making ends meet. The U.S. Census Household Pulse Survey provides insight into how different groups of people are faring. The data show that millions of North Carolinians are finding it difficult to pay for usual household expenses during the coronavirus pandemic. Black […]
Pandemic fuels stunning growth in the wealth of the super-rich
U.S. needs a special one-time wealth tax to fund services, ease widespread suffering One probably shouldn’t be surprised, but it’s still stunning to learn just how handsomely the super-rich have been faring in recent months at the same moment that millions of Americans are struggling to find enough to eat. This is from a recent […]
Pandemic abets the widening wealth and income gaps
As the good people at Inequality.org have been documenting at length recently, the COVID-19 pandemic (and our inadequate responses to it) are helping to further worsen America’s already scandalous wealth and income gaps. Click here to check out some of their recent work. Meanwhile, the following recent post from N.C. Budget & Tax Center research […]
Which corporations are enjoying record profits and how are they contributing to the recovery?
At the same time that North Carolina is experiencing the most dramatic economic downturn since the Great Depression and unemployment benefits are getting cut for jobless workers, massive corporations are enjoying record profits and tax breaks. A recent report by Oxfam titled “Pandemic Profiteers Exposed,” found that 17 out of the top 25 most profitable […]