“Some dismiss inequality and focus instead on overall growth – arguing, in effect, that a rising tide lifts all boats. When a handful of yachts become ocean liners while the rest remain lowly canoes, something is seriously amiss.”
Um, that’s a group of IMF economists speaking (quoted in an NYT piece today).
Even more interesting is this little nugget:
“Growth becomes more fragile” in countries with high levels of inequality like the United States, said Jonathan D. Ostry of the International Monetary Fund, whose research suggests that the widening disparity since the 1980s might shorten the nation’s economic expansions by as much as a third.
Reducing inequality and bolstering growth, in the long run, might be “two sides of the same coin,” research published last year by the I.M.F. concluded.
Pretty arresting, when you stop to think about how long the IMF argued that inequality was in effect the price you had to pay for policies that would foster high growth rates.
