Janet Yellen Gets It On Inequality

Posted by | October 18, 2014 00:03 | Filed under: Contributors Economy Opinion Stuart Shapiro Top Stories


The new Chair of the Federal Reserve gave the kind of speech that few of her predecessors would have offered.

On Friday, Janet Yellen presented a thorough speech outlining the inherent problems income inequality presents to the American ideology, proving once again she is committed to using her role as Federal Reserve chair to tackle widening income inequality rates.

“The extent of and continuing increase in inequality in the United States greatly concern me,” Yellen told the Federal Reserve of Boston. “The past several decades have seen the most sustained rise in inequality since the 19th century after more than 40 years of narrowing inequality following the Great Depression.”

“I think it is appropriate to ask whether this trend is compatible with values rooted in our nation’s history, among them the high value Americans have traditionally placed on equality of opportunity,” she added.

Bravo.

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Copyright 2014 Liberaland
By: Stuart Shapiro

Stuart is a professor and the Director of the Public Policy
program at the Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers
University. He teaches economics and cost-benefit analysis and studies
regulation in the United States at both the federal and state levels.
Prior to coming to Rutgers, Stuart worked for five years at the Office
of Management and Budget in Washington under Presidents Clinton and
George W. Bush.

16 responses to Janet Yellen Gets It On Inequality

  1. Red Eye Robot October 18th, 2014 at 03:21

    blah, blah, blah,

    • rg9rts October 18th, 2014 at 05:36

      Your chart only confirms that the gopee ran the economy into the ground…even the rich old white men lost ROTFLMAO

    • OldLefty October 18th, 2014 at 07:20

      Yeah, but I thought that had nothing to do with the president. (At least when the president has an (R) after his name;

      Fox said so.

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UzEnKdBAb_o

      Meanwhile, Patrick DeHaan, senior petroleum analyst at Gasbuddy, laid out key dates: With the U.S. economy starting to falter, regular gas hit an all-time high of $4.12 on July 15, 2008. Mega-investment bank Lehman Bros. filed for bankruptcy Sept. 15, 2008, triggering global financial crisis. Gas prices took their biggest drop in history, bottoming out at $1.61 on Dec. 31, 2008. Obama was sworn in Jan. 20, 2009.

      “Without a recession,” DeHaan told us by phone, “gas prices would probably not have gotten to that low before Obama took office.” Politicians’ failure to mention the crash in such comparisons is a “glaring omission,” he said. “It just so happened that the timing was not in Obama’s favor.”

      Prices were going up in the 2000s before the collapse, AAA spokesman Michael Green told us by phone, “primarily due to the strengthening economy in China. As China demanded more petroleum products, it created increased demand around the world and we saw the global price of petroleum increase.”

    • Stuart Shapiro October 18th, 2014 at 07:45

      Thank you for showing that there are two ways to deal with this problem (and acknowledging that it is a problem). The first is to tank the economy so that even the wealthy suffer (the Bush approach). The other is to focus on policies that both spur growth and fairness. That hasn’t been done in a long long time.

  2. Red Eye Robot October 18th, 2014 at 03:21

    blah, blah, blah,

    • rg9rts October 18th, 2014 at 05:36

      Your chart only confirms that the gopee ran the economy into the ground…even the rich old white men lost ROTFLMAO

    • OldLefty October 18th, 2014 at 07:20

      Yeah, but I thought that had nothing to do with the president. (At least when the president has an (R) after his name;

      Fox said so.

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UzEnKdBAb_o

      Meanwhile, Patrick DeHaan, senior petroleum analyst at Gasbuddy, laid out key dates: With the U.S. economy starting to falter, regular gas hit an all-time high of $4.12 on July 15, 2008. Mega-investment bank Lehman Bros. filed for bankruptcy Sept. 15, 2008, triggering global financial crisis. Gas prices took their biggest drop in history, bottoming out at $1.61 on Dec. 31, 2008. Obama was sworn in Jan. 20, 2009.

      “Without a recession,” DeHaan told us by phone, “gas prices would probably not have gotten to that low before Obama took office.” Politicians’ failure to mention the crash in such comparisons is a “glaring omission,” he said. “It just so happened that the timing was not in Obama’s favor.”

      Prices were going up in the 2000s before the collapse, AAA spokesman Michael Green told us by phone, “primarily due to the strengthening economy in China. As China demanded more petroleum products, it created increased demand around the world and we saw the global price of petroleum increase.”

    • Stuart Shapiro October 18th, 2014 at 07:45

      Thank you for showing that there are two ways to deal with this problem (and acknowledging that it is a problem). The first is to tank the economy so that even the wealthy suffer (the Bush approach). The other is to focus on policies that both spur growth and fairness. That hasn’t been done in a long long time.

  3. rg9rts October 18th, 2014 at 05:35

    Maybe the gopee should ask the Romanov’s what happened

  4. rg9rts October 18th, 2014 at 05:35

    Maybe the gopee should ask the Romanov’s what happened

  5. fancypants October 18th, 2014 at 06:49

    a good explanation how Ronnie Reagan squashed small businesses

    http://youtu.be/hU3dJZOwlYY

    The Sherman Act authorized the Federal Government to institute proceedings against trusts in order to dissolve them. Any combination “in the form of trust or otherwise that was in restraint of trade or commerce among the several states, or with foreign nations” was declared illegal. Persons forming such combinations were subject to fines of $5,000 and a year in jail. Individuals and companies suffering losses because of trusts were permitted to sue in Federal court for triple damages. The Sherman Act was designed to restore competition but was loosely worded and failed to define such critical terms as “trust,” “combination,” “conspiracy,” and “monopoly.”

  6. fancypants October 18th, 2014 at 06:49

    a good explanation how Ronnie Reagan squashed small businesses

    http://youtu.be/hU3dJZOwlYY

    The Sherman Act authorized the Federal Government to institute proceedings against trusts in order to dissolve them. Any combination “in the form of trust or otherwise that was in restraint of trade or commerce among the several states, or with foreign nations” was declared illegal. Persons forming such combinations were subject to fines of $5,000 and a year in jail. Individuals and companies suffering losses because of trusts were permitted to sue in Federal court for triple damages. The Sherman Act was designed to restore competition but was loosely worded and failed to define such critical terms as “trust,” “combination,” “conspiracy,” and “monopoly.”

  7. Angelo_Frank October 20th, 2014 at 19:52

    Malarkey. The Federal Reserve has created income inequality with it’s zero interest rate policy (ZIRP). Punish senior citizens on fixed incomes until they have to throw their pensions into the stock market. Thanks, Yellen, you tool of Wall Street.

    • starskeptic October 24th, 2014 at 13:22

      Malarkey. Income inequality is a result of the de-coupling of productivity and wages – way before ZIRP. Thanks, Ronnie – you tool.

  8. Angelo_Frank October 20th, 2014 at 19:52

    Malarkey. The Federal Reserve has created income inequality with it’s zero interest rate policy (ZIRP). Punish senior citizens on fixed incomes until they have to throw their pensions into the stock market. Thanks, Yellen, you tool of Wall Street.

    • starskeptic October 24th, 2014 at 13:22

      Malarkey. Income inequality is a result of the de-coupling of productivity and wages – way before ZIRP. Thanks, Ronnie – you tool.

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