John Kay’s column in the FT on 6 January 2015 is headed: “Rise in US and UK inequality principally due to financialisation and executive pay.” He says: “The rise in inequality in some western countries is principally the result of two interrelated causes: the growth of the finance sector; and the explosion of the remuneration of senior executives. The people who ran big companies were always relatively well paid, but the meaning of “relatively well paid” is now altogether different.” (John’s new book, Other People’s Money, will be published by Profile later this year.)
This is from Ralph Milliband in [amazon_link id=”0850366887″ target=”_blank” ]The State in Capitalist Society[/amazon_link] (1973):
“The most important political fact about advanced capitalist societies…is the continued existence in them of private and ever more concentrated economic power. As a result of that power, the men owners and controllers in whose hands it lies enjoy a massive preponderance in society, in the political system, and in the determination of the states policy and actions.”
[amazon_image id=”0850366887″ link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]The State in Capitalist Society[/amazon_image]
As Orazio Attanasio said at the recent CEPR/Bank of England conference on [amazon_link id=”B00I2WNYJW” target=”_blank” ]Thomas Piketty’s book[/amazon_link], there are two inequality problems, the bottom 10% and the top 1%. The latter are mainly the bankers and CEOs.