Inequality Obstructs Progress - Chief White House Economic Adviser

Alan Krueger and Pres. Obama

Alan B. Krueger, the Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers has sounded a strikingly populist note.  Inequality is a part of the problem, not the solution.  The contrast with Mitt Romney - who describes such concerns  as class warfare and the product of envy - could not be clearer. speaking on January 12 at the Center for American Progress, President Obama's chief economist declared:

My theme in this talk is that the rise in inequality in the United States over the last three decades has reached the point that inequality in incomes is causing an unhealthy division in opportunities, and is a threat to our economic growth. Restoring a greater degree of fairness to the U.S. job market would be good for businesses, good for the economy, and good for the country.

Leveling of the once sharply graduated tax code has played a large role in that - as has the steady erosion of trade union power.  Reversing that trend will take a concentrated effort that no one in the political mainstream has mustered since the New Deal of Franklin Roosevelt.