For high-income consumers ("the haves"): Strong spending power: Wealthy consumers are buoyed by high asset prices in stocks and real estate. The market melt-up, fueled by investments in areas like artificial intelligence, has increased their net worth. Insulation from interest rates: These individuals are less affected by higher interest rates, allowing them to continue spending on both luxury items and daily goods. Confidence in the economy: Their financial confidence remains strong, leading to continued investment and consumption.
Economists have long warned that the upward climb has slowed to a near standstill. Now the OECD has provided figures that reinforce this perception: in Spain, more than a third of income inequality is determined by factors that do not depend on the individual, but rather on imposed or inherited circumstances such as gender, the parents' place of birth, or, above all, their socioeconomic background.
Last year's presidential election underscored, particularly to Democrats, that the costs of living were a major factor in the outcome. Inflation had increased sharply during Joe Biden's presidency, and voters' angst about rising prices worked against Vice President Kamala Harris' campaign to succeed him in the White House. Not surprisingly, therefore, when the California Legislature opened its 2025 session, its dominant Democrats declared that they would focus on taming the state's notoriously high costs for housing, fuel, utilities and other necessities of modern life.
Many hundreds of people marched from the 16th St. BART Station to Dolores Park Monday at noon in a "Workers Over Billionaires" march that took aim at everything from President Donald Trump to Immigration and Customs Enforcement to Israel's actions in Gaza. Participants talked about general fear of the country's direction, the plight of immigrants and the feeling of living in troubled times.
Starbucks is the worst offender, but jaw-dropping gaps are the norm among America's leading low-wage corporations. CEOs of the 100 S&P 500 firms with the lowest median wages - a group I call the "Low-Wage 100" - have enjoyed skyrocketing pay over the past six years. As a group, these CEOs now earn 632 times more than their median employees, I found in a new report for the Institute for Policy Studies.
