Crises of faith like the one American capitalism is currently suffering can be a good thing if they lead to re-examination and reaffirmation of first principles. The right question here is in fact the simplest one: Are financial institutions doing things that provide a clear, measurable benefit to the real economy? Sadly, the answer at the moment ( Read more... )

Economically, those just entering the top 1 percent have nothing in common with those in the top tenth of the top 1 percent. Someone at the entry point for the top 1 percent would need 29 years to make $10 million, and more than 2,900 years to make $1 billion.
Beyond the 1 percent

Wealth inequality in the U.S. is 10 times worse than income inequality - Fortune

Even Fortune gets it -- a little bit anyway.

This article by William H. Domhoff was updated in 2013 using date from 2010 and earlier.  It is 32 pages, and in  my opinion, well worth  the effort to read.  Is Domhoff a liberal? at least, but the facts often have a leftward tilt.

Who Rules America: Wealth, Income, and PowerI find the data on "net financial worth" interesting,  This is wealth ( Read more... )

Thanks to davesmusictank for sharing
So Fucking Wrong - Jazzy D's Soul Notes

( Early Fransicans Read more... )

Someone finally polled the 1% - And it's not pretty

A different species or just folks like the rest of us, protecting their interests?
I can't tell.
All i know is that "my" Congressional  represents the "interests" of the one percent on almost every issue and "interests" of the majority on almost none.

It turns out money does buy life as most of us thought it did.  As the gap between rich and poor has grown, the gap in life expectancy has more than doubled.  (Nearly tripled in the case of women ( Read more... )

The following was posted earlier today by athgarvan. an Irish Christian Brother about my age whose view so closely resembles my own that i get his permission to put it here ( Read more... )

At Idaho Legislature, Many Doubt Scientific Consensus on Global Warming Cause

( Idaho has no coastline. It does have agricultural land, range, forests, rivers and tourists....Read more... )