What if the 1pc aren’t getting that much richer?

Everyone knows that inequality has got out of hand in the US. Thanks largely to the work of three now-famous economists – Thomas Piketty, Emmanuel Saez, and Gabriel Zucman – it’s probably one of the most widely accepted facts in modern American life. Since the early aughts, they have meticulously documented the rate at which the richest have pulled away from the rest. Their research transformed domestic politics, leading former president Barack Obama to declare inequality the “defining issue of our time,” and turning the 1 per cent into a shorthand for excessive wealth and power.

But what if this “fact” was never true?

Atlantic