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Inequality vs Sustainable Growth

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Is wealth and income inequality holding the economy back?  A recent study by the Pew Foundation shows that from 2009-2011 the wealthiest 7% of the US saw their net worth climb 24% – to an average of nearly $3.2M – while the other 93% of the population saw their wealth plummet 7%.  More than being unfair, it may also be holding back economic growth overall.  The rich may be happy with their take, but it may stop coming.

A number of studies have shown the effect over a number of countries, and the effect is undeniable.  At what point does income and/or wealth inequality slow growth?  Like an excess of debt it’s hard to say, but the two taken together lead to a compelling argument that the search for sustainable, meaningful growth is a strongly bipartisan, left and right issue – and something we should get moving on as a priority.

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Crunching the Numbers

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At what point does public debt become a problem?  If you ask many Republicans  when the debt hits 90% of GDP we’re in trouble.  Given that the Federal Debt is above this level you can see why there is a push for budget control if not outright austerity.  But where did that magic figure come from?

The answer is a  work by two Harvard economists, Reinhart and Rogoff’s 2010 paper “Growth in a Time of Debt.”  But now that this magic number has been debunked in spectacular style, will the call for austerity ease?  Given how the sides have retrenched, no way.  But it is true that a certain level of debt is indeed a problem – it just isn’t something you can pull from a formula and throw onto autopilot.

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It Works Out – Because of the Bad Stuff

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Over the past year, we’ve been discussing how the current depression might end.  Two distinct scenarios have emerged as the likely candidates – a slow return to work for everyone as small companies complete a transition to a new economy and a collapse of the world’s economic system.  Which will it be?

There is plenty of evidence for both.  The decline in people of working age in the developed world (and soon the developing!) points to more opportunity and higher wages once everything evens out – something like a golden age.  But the recent World Economic Forum and ongoing trauma in Europe highlight the obvious weakness at the top, starting with leadership.

The best answer for crystal ball readers is an obvious one – both might happen simultaneously.  That’s not a punt, it’s a statement of deep belief that, in the long run, the Free Market is probably going to work.

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Fiscal Cliff

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The phrase is often credited to Ben Bernanke, but variations of it have been around for decades.  The “Fiscal Cliff” that went largely unmentioned during the campaign now dominates the talk out of Washington.  It is probably the most important thing that will happen in the next Congress, and it will certainly set the tone for the end of the Obama administration.  Yet almost no one has taken the time to explain what’s at stake in plain language.

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Singularity

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Imagine you are in a space ship hurtling toward a black hole.  You might try to turn the ship around and fire the engines full force.  The problem is that the blast from your engines only adds mass to the black hole, making its gravitational pull even harder.  What do you do?  Fire the engines harder to try to hit escape velocity?

That may sound like a silly analogy for our ecnonomy, and it is definitely far from complete.  But as the brilliant John Mauldin discusses in his “Thoughts From the Frontline”, the black hole of debt is posing some very unusual economic problems.  This “singularity” is, simply put, a place where the normal equations that describe the universe of economics no longer apply.  What can we do when everything we know no longer works?

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