Reagan's OMB Head: Wealth Inequality Is A Problem
Posted: 02-01-2015 04:42 PM
Stockman's specific concern is gains in the stock market, which he say have contributed massively to wealth inequality. But blame lays not with the tax code (indeed, he pioneered a trickle-down approach to taxes under Reagan) but with the Fed, he says.
The problem is "This prosperity we've had in the top 5 percent—and that's where most of the consumption growth has been—is entirely a function of artificially ballooning stock prices and other risk assets."
Meanwhile, "the 'Main Street' households in America are not doing well. Their incomes are not growing." Because Stockman thinks that stocks are set to plunge, he believes that those who have their money in the market are set to lose a great deal of it.
"We've had two huge bubbles that collapsed already in this century," he said. "When this third bubble collapses—and surely it will—I believe that will be the day of reckoning."
FULL STORY
The problem is "This prosperity we've had in the top 5 percent—and that's where most of the consumption growth has been—is entirely a function of artificially ballooning stock prices and other risk assets."
Meanwhile, "the 'Main Street' households in America are not doing well. Their incomes are not growing." Because Stockman thinks that stocks are set to plunge, he believes that those who have their money in the market are set to lose a great deal of it.
"We've had two huge bubbles that collapsed already in this century," he said. "When this third bubble collapses—and surely it will—I believe that will be the day of reckoning."
FULL STORY