Inequality, the 2008 Crash and the ongoing crisis Stewart Lansley

It seems mistaken to take for granted the tranquillity of a large struggling majority, while a minority wins fabulous rewards… capitalism works only when rewards are seen to be shared. Max Hastings, Financial Times, June 2011 The growth of inequality is an issue that ‘needs airing and the problem needs solving’. Irwin Stelzer, Sunday Times, 31 Oct 2011

How Income Inequality in the UK has Come Full Circle Source: The Cost of Inequality: Three Decades of the Super-Rich and the Economy

The Falling Wage Share, , UK Source: The Cost of Inequality: Three Decades of the Super-Rich and the Economy

The growing earnings gap, UK Source: The Cost of Inequality: Three Decades of the Super-Rich and the Economy

The strategy of big business is to zap labor. Arnold Weber, head of President Nixon’s Wages and Prices Board, 1974 Inequality of wealth and incomes is the cause of the masses’ well being… Where there is a lower degree of inequality, there is a lower standard of living of the masses. Ludwig von Mises, 1955 Making the rich poorer does not make the poor richer, but it does make the state stronger … The pursuit of income equality will turn this country into a totalitarian slum. Sir Keith Joseph, Stranded in the Middle Ground?, Centre for Policy Studies, 1976 Zapping Labour

Depth of post-war recessions, UK Source: The Cost of Inequality: Three Decades of the Super-Rich and the Economy

The growing wage-productivity gap, UK Source: The Cost of Inequality: Three Decades of the Super-Rich and the Economy

The growing wage-productivity gap, US Source: The Cost of Inequality: Three Decades of the Super-Rich and the Economy

The impact of a growing wage-productivity gap, UK PERIODRELATIONSHIP BETWEEN WAGES AND PRODUCTIVITY IMPACT 1920s and post -1980s THE WAGE SQUEEZE Wages fell sharply behind rises in productivity Recession WAGE BUOYANCY Wages rose in line with productivity Stability THE PROFITS SQUEEZE Wages rose more quickly than productivity Stagflation

Top executive and employee pay compared,