Trickle Down, Down, Dooby-Doo, Down

Who: Rakesh Kochhar, Richard Fry, and Paul Taylor
What: "Wealth Gaps Rise to Record Highs Between Whites, Blacks, Hispanics", Pew Social & Demographic Trends
When: July 26, 2011

The median wealth of white households is 20 times that of black households and 18 times that of Hispanic households, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of newly available government data from 2009.

These lopsided wealth ratios are the largest since the government began publishing such data a quarter century ago and roughly twice the size of the ratios that had prevailed between these three groups for the two decades prior to the Great Recession that ended in 2009.

Some might simply shrug and suggest that they're not surprised. However, there is a difference, I think, between the fact of an outcome, generalized—e.g., The wealth gap between whites and blacks or hispanics is growing—and considerations of scale.

The idea that white households are better off financially than black or hispanic households is hardly shocking. But the idea of the gap being eighteen- or twenty-fold is unsettling, to say the least.

Of course, some would suggest that not only was this the predictable result of trickle-down economic theory, it was also the point.

A Fundamental Question: What, exactly, are we doing?

Who: Paul Krugman
What: "Eat the Future", The New York Times
When: February 14, 2011

Republican leaders like to claim that the midterms gave them a mandate for sharp cuts in government spending. Some of us believe that the elections were less about spending than they were about persistent high unemployment, but whatever. The key point to understand is that while many voters say that they want lower spending, press the issue a bit further and it turns out that they only want to cut spending on other people.

That's the lesson from a new survey by the Pew Research Center, in which Americans were asked whether they favored higher or lower spending in a variety of areas. It turns out that they want more, not less, spending on most things, including education and Medicare. They're evenly divided about spending on aid to the unemployed and—surprise—defense.

The only thing they clearly want to cut is foreign aid, which most Americans believe, wrongly, accounts for a large share of the federal budget.

Pew also asked people how they would like to see states close their budget deficits. Do they favor cuts in either education or health care, the main expenses states face? No. Do they favor tax increases? No. The only deficit-reduction measure with significant support was cuts in public-employee pensions—and even there the public was evenly divided.

The moral is clear. Republicans don't have a mandate to cut spending; they have a mandate to repeal the laws of arithmetic.

Strange times.