The OECD have released a report today, showing that wage inequality has increased over the past 30 years across most advanced economies - click here for details. The graph below shows that the Gini coefficient of income inequality increased across most OECD countries between 1985 and 2008.
My colleague and former PhD student Gareth Campbell has created a website about the British Railway Mania - click here . This episode has been described by the Economist as probably the greatest bubble in human history. Gareth's website provides background on the Mania and posits some explanations for the 'bubble'. In his explanation of why the bubble happened, Gareth places a lot of emphasis on investor myopia regarding future dividends and uncalled capital. His study of investors during the episode does not support the view that this episode was fuelled by naive and irrational investors.