Does Income Inequality Matter?

theodp is concerned about the following: "Alarmed by Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein's record-setting $53M bonus, Charles Wheelan (aka The Naked Economist) argues that income inequality matters. Wheelan notes that the Gini Coefficient (a measure of income inequality) for the U.S. has been moving away from countries like Japan and Sweden and closer to that of Brazil, where the murder rate is 5X that of NYC and crime is materially impacting GDP."

Comments

Offtopic.

[clintp]

When did the financial pundits spewing pseudofacts about income inequity become "News for nerds. Stuff that matters."?

Re:Inequality matters - and it's usually good

[mcrbids]

The Grameen foundation is, for all intents and purposes, a "noncommercial bank". They manage all the loans, they take care of everything.

You *can* get more involved, but you don't have to. They kick out reports periodically to indicate the average size of loan, the amount of money loaned, ROI, etc.

And it's a good thing, too. I don't have time to review loan candidates, what with running my business as partner/CTO, taking pilot lessons, and being husband and father of 5.

My wife is also involved with an educational program in Haiti - a mere $150/year will educate several kids for a year. Yes, the cost of a single college textbook.