Richard D. Wolff

What causes the recent sharp increases in income inequality? How are these causes and effects the same as, and different from, the race-to-the-bottom economic policies and dynamics of the 1980s, that famously drove the activities of corporate raiders like Carl Icahn, while sending Michael Milliken to jail (only temporarily, of course)? While recognizing that inequality is endemic to capitalism, it seems that there is intensified pressure on major corps. to slash services, employees, etc., in the interest of shareholder value/driving up stock price. These trends have serious consequences for public health, and I think motivated some voters to support Trump, who pretended that NAFTA was the key problem; Dems have virtually nothing to say about this ($15/hr. minimum wage did not send people to the barricades, or the voting booth). (I've read Les Leopold, Thos. Piketty, who describe the trends in income inequality, but don't explain its course/etiology; now reading Pasquale Tridico, who looks like he may come closer, in "Inequality in Financial Capitalism." Appreciate comments, illumination.