The Rachel Maddow Show - Paul Krugman talks about income inequality

May 1, 2012
Dr. Paul Krugman, Nobel prize winning economist, op-ed columnist for The New York Times, Princeton professor and author of the new book "End This Depression Now!" talks with Rachel Maddow about the relationship between income inequality, political polarization and economic crises.

• Category

  News & Politics

[Tradeofjane]

DEAR REPUBLICANS, you can't really balance the budget on the backs of the poor and middle-class when the wealthiest 5% control more than 60% of the nations wealth! 

[john townsend]

Median household income has barely budged for 30 years while in stark contrast income growth for the top privileged 10% has grown by 75% since 1980 and counting. In 1980 the average CEO made 25 times what an average worker made; now it´s 400 times as much

Yet, tax relief for the wealthy elite is at unprecedented lows with crippling gov´t debt taking up the slack.

[D Boca]

Americans: Argue for a rising minimum wage, like we do in Australia - trust me in really helps the poor, and the economy as a whole.

[Andrew Dudzik]

And no, I won't withdraw my statement that borrowing when real rates are negative is good sense and good business, and that somebody would only suggest we do otherwise if they truly want the U.S. government to become ineffective.

[Andrew Dudzik]

No, taxes do not put people in debt (if paid correctly). They are given, under the law of the land, with no promises attached. It seems like you're just mad that you live under a government; I really can't perceive any substantive economic thought at all in what you've written.

You seem to have completely forgotten about bond markets in your cartoonish outline of the American fiscal system, which you seem to think is some kind of magic fairy palace where everything makes sense to a toddler.

[MisterExxon]

Sidenote, foreign investment benefits the private sector.

[MisterExxon]

Then stop advocating for government to spend more then they make. Apparently you don't realize the government has no money and gets it's money directly from the tax payers. If the people continuously pay taxes, which they do, and yet the government is still indebted, what do you blame - the government? No, you blame your little stupid dichotomy: savings make the government poorer for some reason. Private surplus does not = government deficit, private surplus is an outcome of government deficit.

[Andrew Dudzik]

And yes, ignoring foreign investment, private surplus = public deficit. That's a simple accounting identity once inflation is accounted for. Value is not produced out of thin air; you can only spend more than you make if somebody else spends less than they make.

And no, I'm not overlooking anything about taxes. I agree that governments and businesses shouldn't be in bed together, but that hardly makes your freshman-year economics insights more than uninformed rambling.

[MisterExxon]

You also overlook the fact that regardless of what the government compensate in taxes, it always spend more then it has, which it then offset by borrowing money from the central bank which cause inflation and weakens the economy. The only irresponsibility here is the government and businesses in bed with each other.

[MisterExxon]

No, I won't, although I already know more about the current fiscal policy then you. Wow, you just compared a surplus to a deficit, why am I not surprised. The debt has nothing to do with the saving of money by the private sector it has to do with SPENDING. The government has no money; it gets it's revenue from the people or from borrowing from the central bank. The fact that the government is in a deficit is none other then the idiots who spend over what they compensated from the public.