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Feb/15

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Out-Of-Control Inequality Is Making The World’s Top Financial Officials Worried

Richest Getting RicherBryce Covert posted an article with the above title on the ThinkProgress.com website on February 11, 2015. The article reports that “a draft statement from the Group of 20 finance officials warned that growing income inequality could harm economic growth, the first time the group has voiced concern on the issue.”

The article goes on to report that “according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the income gap between rich and poor in most developed countries is the biggest in 3 decades with the wealthiest 10% making 9.5 times more than the bottom 10%.” And a recent report from Oxfam that we posted about earlier this year “forecast that the top 1% of the world’s earners would own more wealth than the bottom 99% by 2016.

But, how does the look in the US? Here’s what the article had to say about that:

Here in the United States, income inequality has been growing for decades, but it’s gotten even worse since the financial crisis. Between 2009 and 2012, the top 1 percent of earners captured all of the income gains while average income actually fell for everyone else. That continues a recent trend in which the richest 10 percent capture increasingly larger shares of income growth during times of economic expansion.

In addition to the G-20, the International Monetary Fund believes higher inequality correlates with lower and less long-lasting growth while taking steps to make income more equitable won’t hurt the economy.

Janet Yellen, Chair of the Federal Reserve, has warned that income inequality is a “very serious problem.”

The CEO of one of the world’s largest banks has stated income inequality is “very destabilizing”.

Most large US companies are warning investors that “falling incomes for most consumers could hurt their businesses.”

You can read the full post here.

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