Where Have the Populists Gone?

The next time you find yourself lamenting the utter inability of Democrats to gain any traction whatsoever with a slightly more progressive economic agenda, feel free to bring up this piece by Ryan J. Donmoyer of Business Week. That is, if you can remember to mention it after having slammed your head against the wall so many times.

Feb. 17 (Bloomberg) -- The average income reported by the 400 highest-earning U.S. households grew to almost $345 million in 2007, up 31 percent from a year earlier, Internal Revenue Service statistics show.

The figures for 2007, the last year of an economic expansion, show that average income reported by the top 400 earners more than doubled from $131.1 million in 2001. That year, Congress adopted tax cuts urged by then-President George W. Bush that Democrats say disproportionately benefits the wealthy.

On the upside, much of this wealth was likely devoured by the recession. On the downside, this probably only translated into fired groundskeepers and kitchen staff. Here's hoping the top 400 find a way to muddle through.

Further reading HERE from Ryan Avent at The Economist, who rightly calls this trend of unsustainable divergence "a massive populist backlash waiting to explode."