Wealth Gap

A deep dive into the transition from meritocratic work to inherited wealth as the dominant economic force.

Examining how shifts in progressive taxation and global tax competition accelerated wealth gaps since the 1970s.

Analyzing the capital-income ratio (\(\beta\)) and how low growth resurrects the 19th-century rentier class.

An investigation into the mathematical and systemic drivers of global wealth concentration.

Exploring the central divergence between capital returns and economic growth as the primary engine of inequality.

The Free Trade Myth: free trade is not the magic bullet it's claimed to be.

This post examines the development strategies of today's wealthiest nations during the centuries in which they became wealthy, drawing on archival evidence from Britain, the United States, Germany, Japan, and other industrial powers. It places those strategies alongside the policy prescriptions those same countries currently deliver to the developing world. The gap between what rich countries did and what they now recommend is the central subject of the inquiry.

This post examines the dominant narrative about globalization — its origins, its internal logic, and its relationship to the actual historical record. Drawing on comparative development data from the post-war period through the present, it asks whether the policies prescribed to poor countries today bear any resemblance to the policies that made rich countries rich. The stakes are not academic: how a country understands the history of capitalism determines whether it believes it has options.