Joseph Stiglitz — The Price of Inequality

A closer look at those at the top reveals a disproportionate role for rent-seeking: some have obtained their wealth by exercising monopoly power; others are CEOs who have taken advantage of deficiencies in corporate governance to extract for themselves an excessive share of corporate earnings; and still others have used political connections to benefit from government munificence – either excessively high prices for what the government buys (drugs), or excessively low prices for what the government sells (mineral rights).

Likewise, part of the wealth of those in finance comes from exploiting the poor, through predatory lending and abusive credit-card practices. Those at the top, in such cases, are enriched at the direct expense of those at the bottom....

Rent-seeking distorts the economy. Market forces, of course, play a role, too, but markets are shaped by politics; and, in America, with its quasi-corrupt system of campaign finance and its revolving doors between government and industry, politics is shaped by money.

Read it at Project Syndicate
The Price of Inequality
by Joseph Stiglitz

This gives new meaning to "The rent is too damn high."

Both Joe Stiglitz and Jamie Galbraith are pounding on inequality. This meme is gaining steam.

What's emerging is that what used to be the American dream is now the American Empire. The Great Experiment is failing.