For the sake of shared prosperity and economic democracy, says the UK High Pay Centre, government contracts should “only be awarded to those firms with solid records on employee voice, internal wage inequality and transparency.” @highpaycentre.bsky.social highpaycentre.org/wp-content/u...

Do we have elections in the United States or auctions? Our rich clearly see the latter. Their millions can’t always buy the results they want. But those dollars always distort the democratic process. #plutocracy www.nytimes.com/2026/08/04/u...

AIPAC Spending Dominates the Michigan Democratic Senate Primary

Representative Haley Stevens has been backed by tens of millions of dollars, much of it from pro-Israel groups and hidden donors. Her rival, Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, has tried to make that support a liabil...

nytimes.com

What happens when Artificial Intelligence meets artificial democracy: AI-related super PACs have already spent over $50 million on 2026 races. #democracy @4taxfairness.bsky.social fortune.com/2026/07/27/b...

Billionaires are flooding the midterms with cash—and nearly 80 cents of every dollar backs Republicans. Most of the time, the bigger spender wins | Fortune

The bigger spender wins up to 90% of the time. But strategists on both sides say money follows winners more than it makes them.

fortune.com

On prediction markets — gambling websites that allow betting on the outcome of events — people can bet on wildfires. That creates, 6 U.S. senators charge, a temptation to commit arson and commodifies human suffering “all so the rich and powerful can profit.” www.merkley.senate.gov/wp-content/u...

“The idea that extraordinary talent deserves extraordinary compensation” has become our modern-day justification for record inequality. @dannydorling.bsky.social #billionaires jacobin.com/2026/07/econ...

Take a Moment to Feel the Pain of the Rich

Once respectable opinion fretted about distinguishing the “deserving” poor from the “undeserving.” Today, as sentiment against the ultrarich surges, the Economist argues that it is in fact billionaire...

jacobin.com

If you think speaking truth to power can be difficult, this political scientist advises, try speaking truth to money. @dandrezner.bsky.social danieldrezner.substack.com/p/the-perils...

The Perils of the Billionaire Bubble

Elon Musk and Donald Trump can try to bend reality, but reality tends to snap back.

danieldrezner.substack.com

The toxic brew of growing longevity amid growing inequality: Our rich — who tend to live the longest, thanks to their money — end up handing their wealth over to their offspring when they’re also getting on in years and likely to hoard that wealth as well. @lrb.co.uk www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

Some 4,000 years ago, a new study shows, the ancient Mohenjo-daro civilization in modern-day Pakistan/India demonstrated how a technologically advanced society could distribute prosperity broadly. Mohenjo-daro grew more equal as it grew more advanced. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/202...

America’s concentration of wealth has created a political system that lets the super rich buy Congress and the presidency, an education system that lets them buy admission to college for their kids & a justice system that lets them buy their way out of jail. robertreich.substack.com/p/a-realists...

A Realist's Guide to the American System

Part 1: Dimon and the enshittification of everything

robertreich.substack.com

The flying public subsidizes the polluting the private jet mega-rich inflict upon us. Private jets don’t pay anything close to their fair share of air travel infrastructure costs. And Congress last year slathered on still more private jet tax breaks. @ips-dc.org

Red card: World Cup fans and the public subsidize private jet polluters

Ordinary fans and the flying public subsidize the pollution spewing activity of the high-flying private jet class.

thehill.com

Our billionaire in the White House: Donald Trump actually told a British PM that the UK has too many windmills. The windmills, he insisted, are killing birds. Foxes are eating the dead birds and becoming too fat to recognize as foxes. @morethanjustparks.bsky.social www.resilience.org/stories/2026...

What Donald Trump's view of public lands reveals about his environmental agenda

A man who sees a forest as an unswept floor, who calls coal “beautiful,” who believes offshore wind is driving whales insane and making foxes obese, isn’t just someone with unusual opinions about natu...

resilience.org

Might the UK Labour Party finally, after decades of being, as Labour insider Peter Mandelson infamously put it, “intensely relaxed about people getting filthy rich,” finally be ready to take on gross economic #inequality? www.socialeurope.eu/burnhams-bre...

Burnham’s Break with Thatcherism Matters for All Europe

Britain’s new Prime Minister blames four decades of neoliberalism for national malaise — and continental progressives should pay attention.

socialeurope.eu

The most important stat that describes Elon Musk’s wealth? Not whether it’s sitting just above or below the trillion-dollar level. The real most revealing stat: 94% of Musk’s wealth comes from not having to pay taxes on his unrealized capital gains. otherwords.org/elon-musks-f...

Elon Musk’s Fortune Comes From Not Paying Taxes - OtherWords

Trillionaires are creatures of the tax code. If they paid taxes like working people, we wouldn’t have any.

otherwords.org

The fast track to #plutocracy. #inequality americaninequality.substack.com/p/why-blue-s...

In 2025, Google co-founder Sergey Brin’s wealth jumped by over $80 billion, over $200 million per day. The billionaire tax on California’s November ballot that Brin opposes would cost him less than $15 bil, as a %, less than his secretary pays in income taxes! endexcessivewealth.org/plutocratifo...

Metro San Francisco median home prices have jumped from $625,000 in 2012 to over $1.7 million this past spring. Just another example of how windfalls at the top of the income ladder end up distorting housing costs for everyone. #inequality www.mansionglobal.com/articles/ai-...

AI Powerhouses Have Driven San Francisco’s Home Prices Into the Stratosphere

The typical Bay Area home now costs about $1 million more than it did at its Great Financial Crisis bottom

mansionglobal.com

How can we define #plutocracy? Americans, the polls tell us, support raising taxes on corporations and affluents making over $400,000 a year in every congressional district. Yet those taxes remain rock-bottom. www.gelliottmorris.com/p/what-do-vo...

In 1982, Forbes put the net worth of America’s richest 400 at $92 billion, only 0.8% of total U.S. wealth and 3.2% of national income. In 2025, the wealth of the Forbes 400 totaled $6.6 trillion, 3.7% of national wealth and 26% of national income. paulkrugman.substack.com/p/against-ol...

Top corporate execs are lusting after the cost savings AI could provide. Now comes an unwelcome answer to their dreams: OverpAId, a parody project that offers an AI-powered replacement for your company’s CEO. #CEOpay futurism.com/artificial-i...

New Site Threatens to Replace CEOs With AI for Tiny Fraction of Their Bloated Salaries

A new site called OverpAId threatens to unleash AI on the money-hungry CEOs currently trying to automate away the working class.

futurism.com

The AI bubble is making a few lucky souls incredibly rich. It’s also making San Francisco incredibly expensive. The city’s typical home now costs $1.7 million, up from $625,000 in 2012. #inequality #billionaires www.mansionglobal.com/articles/ai-...

AI Powerhouses Have Driven San Francisco’s Home Prices Into the Stratosphere

The typical Bay Area home now costs about $1 million more than it did at its Great Financial Crisis bottom

mansionglobal.com

Trump on #baseball: “I know all the owners. They’re all friends of mine.” Maybe that explains why he backs the owner demand for a cap on player salaries but opposes any limit on #CEOpay. #inequality @theathletic.com www.nytimes.com/athletic/746...

Trump praises Braves, jabs Mets at event with former Atlanta manager Brian Snitker

Speaking at an event in Marietta, Ga., President Donald Trump was joined onstage by the former Braves manager.

nytimes.com

Hard to imagine that back in the 1960s US corporate CEOs only annually pocketed 20x what their average workers made. Today that gap between CEO and worker pay routinely runs 20x that 20-to-1 ratio. #inequality www.youtube.com/shorts/egfrr...

The Secret Behind Massive CEO Pay (And What We Can Do About It)

YouTube video by Robert Reich

youtube.com

Wall Street’s top exec, Jamie Dimon, is now recognizing #inequality as a problem that has people “kind of annoyed.” But “all those slogans about how the rich have caused” inequality, he says, “not true.” Dimon’s net worth: $3.1 billion. www.thestreet.com/markets/jpmo...

JPMorgan CEO issues warning about wealth disparity

Jamie Dimon got political in a recent interview.

thestreet.com

“The soaring stock market has been a colossal payday for a small handful of Americans. Half of the stock market is owned by the top 1% wealthiest Americans, while the bottom 50% owns just 1% of the market.” #inequality www.theguardian.com/business/202...

Two in five Americans believe stock market only serves the top 1%

Exclusive Harris poll for Guardian reveals Americans’ assumptions about stock market and wider economy

theguardian.com

The 10 nations where wealth has concentrated the most. Al the least concentrated end sits Slovakia, with a 38 concentration rating. Europe hosts 6 of the 10 lowest #wealth concentration scores. #inequality www.visualcapitalist.com/ranked-where...

Deployed correctly, AI “could enable shorter hours, higher wages, and broad prosperity, the way previous technological shifts eventually did.” The reason that’s not happening: “our failure to keep wealth distribution in check.” @newrepublic.com

Who Should Own the Robots?

AI’s displacement of workers will make it even harder to organize labor—and all the more necessary.

newrepublic.com

The ratio between UK median CEO and worker pay ratio rose to 130:1 in 2025/26. The US CEO-worker pay ratio annually runs over twice that wide. www.epi.org/publication/... highpaycentre.org/gap-between-...

Gap between the pay of FTSE 100 CEOs and UK workers the widest for 8 years - High Pay Centre

The High Pay Centre's annual review of CEO pay in the FTSE 100 shows the Median FTSE 100 CEO to median UK worker pay ratio rose to 130:1 in 2025/26, the highest for 8 years and up from 124:1 last year...

highpaycentre.org

“Whenever the federal government raises taxes on the wealthy, opponents claim that the economy will tank. They are usually wrong.” NY Times editorial board #inequality www.nytimes.com/2026/07/20/o...

Opinion | The Second Home Tax Is a Win for New York

The recent debate over the new pied-à-terre tax in the city offers a useful case study.

nytimes.com

Wall Street’s Internet bubble took over 2 years to deflate. With AI, the “wisdom of markets” has hit another rough patch. @deanbaker13.bsky.social www.patreon.com/BeatThePress...

Ah, the common touch! Billionaire Tilman Fertitta, Trump’s US ambassador to Italy, certainly has it. To mark the USA’s 250th year, Fertitta is touring Italy’s coastal cities on his 384-ft private yacht. Read one of many protest signs in Venice: “No space for billionaires.”

Billionaire US envoy faces Venice protests amid yacht tour

Hundreds protested the arrival of billionaire and Trump-appointed US Ambassador Tilman Fertitta in Venice. The ambassador's stop — on his personal yacht — is part of a tour marking 250 years of…

dw.com