Good Times: Creative Destruction

It was the best of times. It was the worst of times. Mainly depending on whether you were rich or not.

Via Matt Yglesias, Emmanuel Saez reports:

Top 1% incomes grew by 31.4% while bottom 99% incomes grew only by 0.4% from 2009 to 2012. Hence, the top 1% captured 95% of the income gains in the first three years of the recovery. From 2009 to 2010, top 1% grew fast and then stagnated from 2010 to 2011. Bottom 99% stagnated both from 2009 to 2010 and from 2010 to 2011. In 2012, top 1% incomes increased sharply by 19.6% while bottom 99% incomes grew only by 1.0%. In sum, top 1% incomes are close to full recovery while bottom 99% incomes have hardly started to recover.

No wonder the Romney Party likes the way the economy is going. But we may rest assured that the resources are being more effectively employed - buying Bentleys, building Yachts, and snatching up all those scarce private islands.

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