Wealth Economics
@steveroth.bsky.social
Entrepreneur, progressive sometime 1%er. (Tax me more.) Addictive reader: trash to tomes. National-accounting & econ geek. Evolution and Shakespeare dweeb. Besotted father. From MO; show me the #s. https://wealtheconomics.substack.com/about
One contribution to all the points he makes: poor people experience higher inflation than rich people. Who woulda guessed?
In 2023, rent inflation dominated that difference. /2
www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/202...
In 2023, rent inflation dominated that difference. /2
www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/202...
November 13, 2025 at 5:15 PM
One contribution to all the points he makes: poor people experience higher inflation than rich people. Who woulda guessed?
In 2023, rent inflation dominated that difference. /2
www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/202...
In 2023, rent inflation dominated that difference. /2
www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/202...
Just to note that the image displayed here is only through 2016. Full image from the link:
November 9, 2025 at 5:04 PM
Just to note that the image displayed here is only through 2016. Full image from the link:
It makes me crazy that Hax and other “advice” columnists are *always* in the most-read lists at both WP and NYT.
November 9, 2025 at 4:18 PM
It makes me crazy that Hax and other “advice” columnists are *always* in the most-read lists at both WP and NYT.
The last ten years from the perspective of someone who only receives income for working.
Wages +16%. Home prices +95%. Shares of stock +158%.
Why we need a universal Common Wealth Dividend, to distributed the unearned property income that we all create together.
Wages +16%. Home prices +95%. Shares of stock +158%.
Why we need a universal Common Wealth Dividend, to distributed the unearned property income that we all create together.
November 3, 2025 at 3:58 PM
The last ten years from the perspective of someone who only receives income for working.
Wages +16%. Home prices +95%. Shares of stock +158%.
Why we need a universal Common Wealth Dividend, to distributed the unearned property income that we all create together.
Wages +16%. Home prices +95%. Shares of stock +158%.
Why we need a universal Common Wealth Dividend, to distributed the unearned property income that we all create together.
SCOTUS should rule that the 1977 IEEPA is unconstitutionally broad. Good luck with that…
November 3, 2025 at 2:28 PM
SCOTUS should rule that the 1977 IEEPA is unconstitutionally broad. Good luck with that…
The whole damn point of the welfare state is to deliver income to the 50% who Don't Work: mostly children, elderly, caregivers (~3% are "unemployed")
Do they have sufficient "merit" that they "deserve" a decent, comfortable, secure life w/o a working adult supporting them?
Do they have sufficient "merit" that they "deserve" a decent, comfortable, secure life w/o a working adult supporting them?
October 31, 2025 at 5:24 PM
The whole damn point of the welfare state is to deliver income to the 50% who Don't Work: mostly children, elderly, caregivers (~3% are "unemployed")
Do they have sufficient "merit" that they "deserve" a decent, comfortable, secure life w/o a working adult supporting them?
Do they have sufficient "merit" that they "deserve" a decent, comfortable, secure life w/o a working adult supporting them?
"Economics has an elitism problem." Ya think?
(HHI = Herfindahl-Hirschman Index value, commonly used to measure industries' concentration of firms, for example.)
hanzhezhang.github.io/research/240...
(HHI = Herfindahl-Hirschman Index value, commonly used to measure industries' concentration of firms, for example.)
hanzhezhang.github.io/research/240...
October 30, 2025 at 1:58 PM
"Economics has an elitism problem." Ya think?
(HHI = Herfindahl-Hirschman Index value, commonly used to measure industries' concentration of firms, for example.)
hanzhezhang.github.io/research/240...
(HHI = Herfindahl-Hirschman Index value, commonly used to measure industries' concentration of firms, for example.)
hanzhezhang.github.io/research/240...
On the emotional burden and depression that an oppressive regime imposes on a people:
In Q1, the first published edition of Hamlet (it’s a badly degraded text), Hamlet includes an item in the "To be..." speech that might make life not worth living. Not in the Second Quarto or First Folio editions.
In Q1, the first published edition of Hamlet (it’s a badly degraded text), Hamlet includes an item in the "To be..." speech that might make life not worth living. Not in the Second Quarto or First Folio editions.
October 28, 2025 at 3:26 PM
On the emotional burden and depression that an oppressive regime imposes on a people:
In Q1, the first published edition of Hamlet (it’s a badly degraded text), Hamlet includes an item in the "To be..." speech that might make life not worth living. Not in the Second Quarto or First Folio editions.
In Q1, the first published edition of Hamlet (it’s a badly degraded text), Hamlet includes an item in the "To be..." speech that might make life not worth living. Not in the Second Quarto or First Folio editions.
How much of households’ total property income is *not* from "yield" — which is the NIPAs' measure of property income.
How much of of HHs' property income, total return on assets, comes instead from capital/holding gains accrued and accumulated over lifetimes?
Curious, just pulled this graph.
How much of of HHs' property income, total return on assets, comes instead from capital/holding gains accrued and accumulated over lifetimes?
Curious, just pulled this graph.
October 25, 2025 at 6:47 PM
How much of households’ total property income is *not* from "yield" — which is the NIPAs' measure of property income.
How much of of HHs' property income, total return on assets, comes instead from capital/holding gains accrued and accumulated over lifetimes?
Curious, just pulled this graph.
How much of of HHs' property income, total return on assets, comes instead from capital/holding gains accrued and accumulated over lifetimes?
Curious, just pulled this graph.
This agrees. 26% wealth decline times 12% annual wealth turnover for all households, 26×.12 = 3.12.
This is for all wealth including real estate, not just equities. (The wealth-effects literature suggests that spending reacts more to real-estate valuation changes. Cause it’s viewed as enduring?)
This is for all wealth including real estate, not just equities. (The wealth-effects literature suggests that spending reacts more to real-estate valuation changes. Cause it’s viewed as enduring?)
October 22, 2025 at 7:41 PM
This agrees. 26% wealth decline times 12% annual wealth turnover for all households, 26×.12 = 3.12.
This is for all wealth including real estate, not just equities. (The wealth-effects literature suggests that spending reacts more to real-estate valuation changes. Cause it’s viewed as enduring?)
This is for all wealth including real estate, not just equities. (The wealth-effects literature suggests that spending reacts more to real-estate valuation changes. Cause it’s viewed as enduring?)
“Take America Back”? To say, 1942?
Here's what you were hearing on the radio, @ 0:34.
And here's how that's going.
www.radioechoes.com?dl_date=1942...
Here's what you were hearing on the radio, @ 0:34.
And here's how that's going.
www.radioechoes.com?dl_date=1942...
October 22, 2025 at 4:24 PM
“Take America Back”? To say, 1942?
Here's what you were hearing on the radio, @ 0:34.
And here's how that's going.
www.radioechoes.com?dl_date=1942...
Here's what you were hearing on the radio, @ 0:34.
And here's how that's going.
www.radioechoes.com?dl_date=1942...
Wait you mean "expansionary austerity" isn’t…expansionary? Whodathunkit?
www.imf.org/external/pub...
(Takeaway: Cyclically Adjust Primary Balance is a pretty artificial and methodologically dicey constructed measure...)
Hat tip Matthew Klein. theovershoot.co/p/the-latest...
www.imf.org/external/pub...
(Takeaway: Cyclically Adjust Primary Balance is a pretty artificial and methodologically dicey constructed measure...)
Hat tip Matthew Klein. theovershoot.co/p/the-latest...
October 21, 2025 at 6:48 PM
Wait you mean "expansionary austerity" isn’t…expansionary? Whodathunkit?
www.imf.org/external/pub...
(Takeaway: Cyclically Adjust Primary Balance is a pretty artificial and methodologically dicey constructed measure...)
Hat tip Matthew Klein. theovershoot.co/p/the-latest...
www.imf.org/external/pub...
(Takeaway: Cyclically Adjust Primary Balance is a pretty artificial and methodologically dicey constructed measure...)
Hat tip Matthew Klein. theovershoot.co/p/the-latest...
Why Europe's GDP/capita growth has been low for decades:
"a VAT, standing alone, seems to be inherently and
irreparably regressive"
Even despite various back-flips to make it *somewhat* more progressive. Concentrates wealth, which reduces spending.
scholarship.law.ufl.edu/cgi/viewcont... p. 420
"a VAT, standing alone, seems to be inherently and
irreparably regressive"
Even despite various back-flips to make it *somewhat* more progressive. Concentrates wealth, which reduces spending.
scholarship.law.ufl.edu/cgi/viewcont... p. 420
October 21, 2025 at 3:42 PM
Why Europe's GDP/capita growth has been low for decades:
"a VAT, standing alone, seems to be inherently and
irreparably regressive"
Even despite various back-flips to make it *somewhat* more progressive. Concentrates wealth, which reduces spending.
scholarship.law.ufl.edu/cgi/viewcont... p. 420
"a VAT, standing alone, seems to be inherently and
irreparably regressive"
Even despite various back-flips to make it *somewhat* more progressive. Concentrates wealth, which reduces spending.
scholarship.law.ufl.edu/cgi/viewcont... p. 420
October 20, 2025 at 4:48 PM
First fire of the season…
October 13, 2025 at 1:54 AM
First fire of the season…
Random graph FYI: from the ’50s to the ’80s, US private investment spending grew as a share of GDP. Then came Reaganomics.
October 12, 2025 at 5:23 PM
Random graph FYI: from the ’50s to the ’80s, US private investment spending grew as a share of GDP. Then came Reaganomics.
Darned interesting, this. If the crux of "populism" is "dividing society into two homogeneous and antagonistic groups—'the pure people' and 'the corrupt elite'"—the least populist ideology worldwide is center-left. www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
October 11, 2025 at 5:16 PM
Darned interesting, this. If the crux of "populism" is "dividing society into two homogeneous and antagonistic groups—'the pure people' and 'the corrupt elite'"—the least populist ideology worldwide is center-left. www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
Even the top 20%: only turn over 6% of their wealth in spending annually.
October 10, 2025 at 10:10 PM
Even the top 20%: only turn over 6% of their wealth in spending annually.
Remember bumper stickers? Here’s one I created shortly after the Citizens United decision came down. I’ve sold a handful of them…
www.zazzle.com/overturn_cit...
www.zazzle.com/overturn_cit...
October 8, 2025 at 4:50 PM
Remember bumper stickers? Here’s one I created shortly after the Citizens United decision came down. I’ve sold a handful of them…
www.zazzle.com/overturn_cit...
www.zazzle.com/overturn_cit...
Plato on maximum wealth.
I just came across this in The Laws, late Plato in which Socrates is absent. A Cretan, a Spartan, and an Athenian discuss what the laws should be for a new colony. This passage by the Athenian raised my eyebrows. www.gutenberg.org/files/1750/1...
I just came across this in The Laws, late Plato in which Socrates is absent. A Cretan, a Spartan, and an Athenian discuss what the laws should be for a new colony. This passage by the Athenian raised my eyebrows. www.gutenberg.org/files/1750/1...
October 8, 2025 at 4:02 PM
Plato on maximum wealth.
I just came across this in The Laws, late Plato in which Socrates is absent. A Cretan, a Spartan, and an Athenian discuss what the laws should be for a new colony. This passage by the Athenian raised my eyebrows. www.gutenberg.org/files/1750/1...
I just came across this in The Laws, late Plato in which Socrates is absent. A Cretan, a Spartan, and an Athenian discuss what the laws should be for a new colony. This passage by the Athenian raised my eyebrows. www.gutenberg.org/files/1750/1...
For the long postwar story (in pretty short form), how we got to this point, learn from the sage, Steve Randy Waldman @interfluidity.com drafts.interfluidity.com/2025/09/25/a...
October 4, 2025 at 5:25 PM
For the long postwar story (in pretty short form), how we got to this point, learn from the sage, Steve Randy Waldman @interfluidity.com drafts.interfluidity.com/2025/09/25/a...
Inflation has been and increasingly is controlled by extreme concentration of wealth and income into ever-fewer hands.
The arithmetic of this mechanism is really easy to understand. The top 20%++ just sits on their wealth, doesn't turn it over in spending. 1/
The arithmetic of this mechanism is really easy to understand. The top 20%++ just sits on their wealth, doesn't turn it over in spending. 1/
October 4, 2025 at 5:25 PM
Inflation has been and increasingly is controlled by extreme concentration of wealth and income into ever-fewer hands.
The arithmetic of this mechanism is really easy to understand. The top 20%++ just sits on their wealth, doesn't turn it over in spending. 1/
The arithmetic of this mechanism is really easy to understand. The top 20%++ just sits on their wealth, doesn't turn it over in spending. 1/
The focus only on earned income is a serious progressive own-goal IMO. The big $ policy leverage today lies in unearned property income — not just NIPA Prop Income measure but the holding gains and "other volume" that are completely ignored there as "income." fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=1MCOU
September 26, 2025 at 3:39 PM
The focus only on earned income is a serious progressive own-goal IMO. The big $ policy leverage today lies in unearned property income — not just NIPA Prop Income measure but the holding gains and "other volume" that are completely ignored there as "income." fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=1MCOU
