Engine of inequality : the fed and the future of wealth in America / Karen Petrou.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Petrou, Karen, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Equality--United States--History--21st century.

Equality.

United States--Economic policy--21st century.

United States.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xxi, 258 pages) : illustrations

Place of Publication:

Hoboken, New Jersey : Wiley, [2021]

Summary:

"Economic inequality in America is on fire. The heat was rising in 2011 when Occupy Wall Street railed against the 1%, and then in 2016, when populist presidential candidates of both parties attracted fervent support. Now we see it in the platforms of 2020 candidates, whose policy proposals for tackling economic inequality reflect the critical concerns they've been hearing from angry, frustrated Americans every day. However, the candidates' plans all have one glitch in common: They have no chance of becoming law. Redistributive bills with new taxes will never be approved in a politically divided government, but Petrou has a remarkably potent solution for reducing economic inequality that no one has even considered -- a fix in keeping with current law that would be quick and would involve no political obstruction or pain"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Cover

Title Page

Copyright

Contents

Acknowledgments

About the Author

Introduction

Chapter 1 Inequality: Why It's So Much Worse and What to Do About It

What We Know about Inequality that Economists Don't

The Economic-Recovery Mirage

Why So Unequal So Fast?

Regulatory Wreckage

How to Fix Financial Policy

Chapter 2 How Unequal Are We?

Economic Inequality Fundamentals

Who Has How Much

What of Wealth?

The Inequality Engine

Worse Than That

The Most Inclusive Ever?

The Great Financial Crisis and Its Equality Aftermath

Chapter 3 What Makes Us So Unequal

The Mechanical Engineering of Economic Inequality

Death and Taxes

The Role of Transfer Payments

A Supply-Side Solution?

Public Wealth: A Sputtering Part in the Equality Engine

Is Education the Answer?

Is Trade Policy a Problem?

Global Policy Reform?

What to Do?

Chapter 4 Why Does Economic Inequality Matter So Much?

Inequality and Mortality

Political Polarization

Inequality's Eviscerating Cost

Inequality and the Long Recession

Financial-Crisis Risk

Chapter 5 Following the Money

How Central Banks Work

The Modern Monetary-Policy Construct

The Fed's Bailout Buckets

The Fed's Payment Powers

Rules of the Financial Road

Four Fundamental Financial-Policy Flaws

Chapter 6 How Monetary Policy Made Most of Us Poorer

The Fed's Heavy Hand

Why It's the Fed's Fault

How Ultra-Low Interest Rates Made America Still Less Equal and QE Still More Inequitable

The High Cost of Low-Rate Debt

The Low-Unemployment Myth

The Anti-Wealth Effect

Making Matters Still Worse

A Bigger Fed, Lower Rates, an Extreme Financial Crisis

Chapter 7 How to Make Monetary Policy Make Us More Equal

The Aggregate-Data Error

The Fed's Real Mandate

The Fourth Mandate.

The Fed's Giant Faucet

Possible Solutions

Slowing the Inequality Engine

Chapter 8 Reckoning with Regulation

Consumer Finance Before the Crash

Are Debtors Just Deadbeats?

Are Banks to Blame?

The Businesses Banks Left Behind

Other Precursors of the Crash That Came

Capitalism and Capital Regulation

A Capital Cure

Going with the Flow

Death without Destruction

The Consumer-Protection Quagmire

An Unreadable Rulebook Thrown Only at Banks

The Bleak Outlook and a Better Future

Chapter 9 Remaking Money

What Money Is and Will Be

The Great Unequalizer

Turning Money into Data

What Makes Money Good Money

Crafting a Good Digital Dollar

How Money Moves

The Central-Bank Solution

Chapter 10 Rules to Equitably Live By

Why Not Just Deregulate?

Learning to Love Like-Kind Rules

The Specifics of Symmetric Regulation

Raising Up the Regulatory Playing Field

Building a New, Equality-Focused Banking System

Banking While Mailing

Establishing Equality Banks

New Money for a New Mission

Chapter 11 Financial Policy for an Equitable Future

Turning the Fed into a Force for Good

The Fed's Failings

The Fed's Equality Toolkit

The First Fix: Understanding America as It Is

The Second Fix: Set an Equality Plan and Say So

The Third Fix: A Far Smaller Fed Portfolio

The Fourth Fix: Normal, Moderate Interest Rates

The Final Fix: Ensuring Financial Stability

Ending the Doom Loop

The Future of Equitable Finance

Notes

Index

EULA.

Notes:

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

1-119-73005-8

1-119-72753-7

OCLC:

1241451545