US wealth distribution – fiscal policy increases private net worth but the poor miss out — Bill Mitchell

I read an interesting report this morning, which resonated with some other work I had been looking into earlier in the week. The Australian Council of Social Services (ACOSS) released a report yesterday (September 27, 2023) – Inequality in Australia 2023: Overview – which shows that “The gap between those with the most and those with the least has blown out over the past two decades, with the average wealth of the highest 20% growing at four times the rate of the lowest”. It is one of the manifestations of the neoliberal era and is ultimately unsustainable. Earlier in the week, I spent some time analysing the latest data from the US Federal Reserve on the distribution of wealth among US households. The US data goes a long way to explaining why the recent interest rate hikes have been inflationary in themselves.

As an aside, one of the characteristics of neoliberalism that is not often recognised is the way in which it has created schizoid welfare institutions – where key organisations that deliver or advocate for improved safety nets or poverty relief adopt internally inconsistent positions without, seemingly, knowing it.…

William Mitchell — Modern Monetary Theory

US wealth distribution – fiscal policy increases private net worth but the poor miss out
Bill Mitchell | Professor in Economics and Director of the Centre of Full Employment and Equity (CofFEE), at University of Newcastle, NSW, Australia

See also

Economics from the Top Down — new ideas in economics and the social sciences
How the Rich Get Richer

Blair Fix, a PhD-trained political economist based in Canada, author of the book Rethinking Economic Growth Theory from the Biophysical Perspective, and self-described "economic heretic"