A while back I published an article titled “The Rich, the Right, and the Facts,” in which I described politically motivated efforts to deny the obvious — the sharp rise in U.S. inequality, especially at the very top of the income scale. It probably won’t surprise you to hear that I found a lot of statistical malpractice in high places.
Nor will it surprise you to learn that nothing much has changed. Not only do the usual suspects continue to deny the obvious, but they keep rolling out the same discredited arguments: Inequality isn’t really rising; O.K., it’s rising, but it doesn’t matter because we have so much social mobility; anyway, it’s a good thing, and anyone who suggests that it’s a problem is a Marxist.
The Giles piece, in many ways, is worse than the Reinhardt and Rogoff “error.” There is no error here; only an attempt to tarnish and discredit, all a part of the right’s mission to pull the wool over the world’s eyes. That’s right. I am saying it. The right wing conspiracy is an international one.
It’s really sad that the Financial Times is complicit in the lie. It’s sad that so many of the trusted institutions that make up the media are divided between right and left, truth and lies, facts and fiction – engaging in propaganda.
That Piketty’s book contained errors is normal for such a huge book. US data, the lion’s share of capital, was not in question. The errors change nothing.
The Giles piece, in many ways, is worse than the Reinhardt and Rogoff “error.” There is no error here; only an attempt to tarnish and discredit, all a part of the right’s mission to pull the wool over the world’s eyes. That’s right. I am saying it. The right wing conspiracy is an international one.