Most Economists in Survey Say Income Inequality is Hurting the US Economy

AP survey of 36 private, academic, and corporate economists

WASHINGTON (AP) — The growing gap between the richest Americans and everyone else isn't bad just for individuals.

It's hurting the U.S. economy.

So says a majority of more than three dozen economists surveyed last week by The Associated Press. Their concerns tap into a debate that's intensified as middle-class pay has stagnated while wealthier households have thrived.

A key source of the economists' concern: Higher pay and outsize stock market gains are flowing mainly to affluent Americans. Yet these households spend less of their money than do low- and middle-income consumers who make up most of the population but whose pay is barely rising.

Comments

[Sevo]

Unalloyed Econ Bullshit Award for Dec 2013 goes to:
"Income gap slows economy, most experts say in survey"

No, what's reported doesn't say that. It says "if middle-class people made more money, they would spend more"
http://www.sfgate.com/default/.....073025.php
This 'survey' (poll, really) is going to be repeated by every bone-head MW freak for the next hundred years; it will be the equivalent of the UN 'health survey' that showed Cuba's medical care superior to the US.
The article as shown on the Chron web site hints the poll was done by a company named Raymond James. I called them, they did NOT do the survey; the guy named barely remembers a reporter calling him to ask, and can't remember the question.
I repeat: this is BULLSHIT and it will be repeated.

[wadair]

I'm no economist but methinks it's the bad economy that's hurting income equality (whatever that is)--not the other way around.