Robert Reich has a fascinating piece in today's FT (click here), where he argues that the gains from the economic recovery in the U.S. are mostly going to the top 1%. Indeed, based on the tax returns for 2010, more than one third of the gains from the recovery have gone to the top 15,600 super-wealthy households! No one outside of the top 10% of the population has benefited from the recovery. In contrast, during the post-1933 recovery, the average income of the bottom 90% went up 8.8%.
It seems that recoveries have become more lopsided over the past two decades. During the 1990s recovery, the top 1% captured 45% of the growth. During the post-2000 recovery, the top 1% got 65% of the growth. During the recent recovery, the top 1% have got 93%!
