Economist Dean Baker: “The rich almost completely control debate in this country. There is no better proof of this fact than the current debate over the future of Social Security.” @ceprdc.bsky.social @deanbaker13.bsky.social #inequality www.patreon.com/BeatThePress...

The “huge decline in corporate tax rates since 1970” has been “a huge indirect tax cut for wealthy individuals who own lots of stock.” That huge cut has “fueled America’s spiral into oligarchy.” #inequality @pkrugman.bsky.social paulkrugman.substack.com/p/oligarchy-...

The merely rich want a share in a private jet. The really rich want a jet of their own. Private jet flights via shared-ownership programs rose 11.8% globally in 2026’s first 5 months over same span in 2025. Flights operated by private jet owners up 13.4%. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

Paul Krugman: AI’s “technological shock is occurring in the context of a pre-existing environment of extreme wealth and political #inequality. And this pre-existing condition will magnify the downsides of the #AI shock.” #billionaires paulkrugman.substack.com/p/ai-in-an-a...

Donald Trump increasingly treats record-high stock prices as proof that his policies are working. Yes, those policies certainly are working — for America’s richest. #inequality www.reuters.com/business/fin...

Who’s now doing news conferences that highlight the emerging progressive political agenda? GOP House speaker Mike Johnson, who apparently believes no voter could possibly support a real challenge to plutocracy. Stay clueless, Mike. www.youtube.com/watch?app=de...

A musing for World Cup time from the Extreme Wealth Center: Soccer’s Cristiano #Ronaldo, the world’s top-paid athlete with a salary of $235 million and $65 million in endorsements, would have to play nearly 4,000 seasons to accumulate an Elon Musk-sized personal fortune. extremewealth.org/pleonexia/

A classic Sam Gross cartoon just highlighted by Liza Donnelly.

Thanks in no small part to the Trump 2025 tax cut for our richest, U.S. billionaire wealth up 32% over last year. Our richest 16 saw their fortunes rise 59% and now hold 43% of all U.S. billionaire wealth. @4taxfairness.bsky.social americansfortaxfairness.org/billionaire-...

Last Wednesday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that surging energy prices had wiped out a year and a half of wage gains for average US workers. Last Friday, the SpaceX stock market debut made Elon Musk the world’s first trillionaire. @bencasselman.bsky.social www.nytimes.com/2026/06/13/b...

Last week’s SpaceX IPO valued Musk’s firm at $2.2 trillion: “People putting money in SpaceX are betting on a company that is losing large amounts of money and run by a person with an affection for Ketamine and neo-Nazi propaganda.” @deanbaker13.bsky.social www.patreon.com/BeatThePress...

A Social Security revenue shortfall looms. Why? High earners are grabbing a higher share of wage income. Many of their paycheck dollars fall above Social Security’s payroll tax cap. Overall corporate profit share also up, wage share down. @deanbaker13.bsky.social www.patreon.com/posts/social...

Senator Chris Murphy: ‘Private equity’ has become shorthand for a broader problem: the purchase of incredibly important social products by massive companies driving to extract as much profit as possible. #inequality @chrismurphyct.bsky.social www.politico.com/newsletters/...

Our billionaire media barons: “The Trumper trio of Larry Elliot, Mark Zuckerberg, and Elon Musk own TikTok, Facebook and Instagram, and X...They do not hide their efforts...to push their political agenda.” @deanbaker13.bsky.social www.patreon.com/posts/trumpe...

The U.S. appears to have added nearly 67,000 people worth $30 million or more since 2021, almost three times China’s increase. China has four times the U.S. population. #inequality #ultra-rich www.visualcapitalist.com/ranked-where...

The 10 worst performing nations... @unicefusa.org www.unicef.org/innocenti/re...

A new UNICEF report — Unequal Chances: Children and economic inequality — finds that the wider a nation’s gap between rich and poor, the poorer the physical health, mental well-being, and the skills that children master. The 10 best-performing nations... @unicefusa.org www.unicef.org/innocenti/re...

A YouGov UK poll earlier this spring: Would you support or oppose capping the maximum wage for bosses in a company at no more than 10 times higher than the lowest wage in that company? Total yes: 65%. Total no: 17%. #CEOpay yougov.com/en-gb/daily-...

5 U.S. #CEOs gobbled up over $100 million in 2025 compensation, says just-released Equilar-AP study. Overall, the pay gap between the typical S&P 500 CEO and worker widened once again. www.equilar.com/reports/127-...

What explains why the US has become so unequal? A big part of the story: Private-sector union density — the share of workers in a union — now down to 5.9%. In the mid-20th century, the height of US economic equality, that rate hovered over 33%. @hamiltonproject.org www.brookings.edu/wp-content/u...

If JD Vance really wanted to crack down on fraud, he’d be helping the IRS collect the annual $600 billion in unpaid taxes. But that would mean going after Trump’s campaign contributors, “not the look Trump wants for the fall elections.” @deanbaker13.bsky.social www.patreon.com/posts/jd-van...

On November’s California ballot: a proposed 1-time levy of 5% on billionaire wealth, spread over 5 years. If passed, this measure would be the 1st tax on billionaire personal and business wealth enacted anywhere. @gabrielzucman.bsky.social @gabrielzucman.bsky.social www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

How do America’s billionaires end up paying so little in taxes? One path: Our richest can structure their fortunes to generate little or even nothing in the way of taxable income. No taxable income, no income tax owed. @gabrielzucman.bsky.social #inequality gzucman.substack.com/p/why-do-bil...

The ‘poverty ratchet’ effect: Sudden events like medical emergencies or bad harvests lock households into poverty. The ‘wealth ratchet’: In crises, wealth concentrates. One reason: The rich have the resources to buy up assets others must sell at knockdown prices. www.equals.ink/p/compound-f...

The man who exposed the latest games the super rich play to avoid paying taxes is now serving a longer prison sentence than many people routinely get for committing manslaughter. #billionaires @cepr.org www.patreon.com/posts/charle...

San Francisco’s Prop D fight: “Extreme executive-to-worker inequality has real costs in public health, in housing pressure, in the demand for city services. Taxing corporations on the basis of that ratio...is not punitive. It is proportionate.” www.sfexaminer.com/forum/taxing...

All of us worried about #inequality should be paying lots more attention “to how we structure the market to redistribute money” to private equity kingpins. Many of our richest — like Steven Schwarzman — owe their billions to PE greed grabs. @deanbaker13.bsky.social www.patreon.com/posts/reform...

How much more vivid a shot of plutocracy in action could we get? The scene in Beijing this week: Trump and his CEO fan club. www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

A global obscenity: The world’s #billionaires now stand $4 trillion richer than 12 months ago. Their combined wealth totals $1.5 trillion more than the wealth of the world’s 4.1 billion poorest people. #inequality www.equals.ink/p/billionair...

At the state level, only modest moves so far this decade to raise taxes on the rich. But momentum for more is building. www.bloomberg.com/news/article...