No surprise. If you look at history, the amount of inequality we have leads to depressions.http://apnews.myway.com/article/20131217/DAAOCP7O0.html
Dec 17, 5:13 PM (ET)
By CHRISTOPHER S. RUGABER
(AP) In this Friday, March 29, 2013, file photo, a homeless man pushes a shopping cart full of...
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WASHINGTON (AP) - The growing gap between the richest Americans and everyone else isn't bad just for individuals.
It's hurting the U.S. economy.
So says a majority of more than three dozen economists surveyed last week by The Associated Press. Their concerns tap into a debate that's intensified as middle-class pay has stagnated while wealthier households have thrived.
A key source of the economists' concern: Higher pay and outsize stock market gains are flowing mainly to affluent Americans. Yet these households spend less of their money than do low- and middle-income consumers who make up most of the population but whose pay is barely rising.
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Income inequality has steadily worsened in recent decades, according to government data and academic studies. The most recent census figures show that the average income for the wealthiest 5 percent of U.S. households, adjusted for inflation, has surged 17 percent in the past 20 years. By contrast, average income for the middle 20 percent of households has risen less than 5 percent.
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Economists appear to be increasingly concerned about the effects of inequality on growth. Brown, the Raymond James economist, says that marks a shift from a few years ago, when many analysts were divided over whether pay inequality was worsening.
Now, he says, "there's not much denial of that ... and you're starting to see some research saying, yes, it does slow the economy."
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