Economics explored, Gilded Age, populism

If you need to buttress your thinking on economic issues, here are a couple of items for your reading. The Monday New York Times rounds up the way the Democratic presidential candidates are taking a more populist approach to economic issues than prevailed under Bill Clinton.

On Sunday, the Times had a big spread on the way the present lavish situation of the super-rich is like the Gilded Age in the second half of the 19th century. Most telling to me were some of the quotes from Warren "Sage of Omaha" Buffet and Robert Crandall, retired head of American Airlines. Crandall on taxes, for instance: "The way our society equalizes incomes is through much higher taxes than we have today. There is no other way." Buffett is in favor of creating abundance first and then concentrating on redistributing it more equitably. Citibank mogul Sanford I. Weill comes off not quite so well by saying he doesn't want his money taken away from him; rather, he wants to give it away himself. The article then focuses on his lavish gift to Carnegie Hall, which -- to me, not the NY Times -- is like giving money to other rich people.

The author of the Sunday Times article is Louis Uchitelle, whose recent book "The Disposable American: Layoffs and their consequences" is one of three covered in a devastatingly logical workup in the New York Review of Books, my personal favorite source of wisdom and analysis. Try this lengthy article if you still are in a reading mood after the long Sunday Times piece.