Income and wealth inequality + more

2 minutes estimated reading time

Income and Wealth Inequality in America, 1949-2016 by Kuhn, Schularick and Steins (University of Bonn) – We expose the central importance of portfolio composition and asset prices for wealth dynamics in postwar America. Asset prices shift the wealth distribution because the composition and leverage of household portfolios differ systematically along the wealth distribution. Middle-class portfolios are dominated by housing, while rich households predominantly own equity. An important consequence is that the top and the middle of the distribution are affected differentially by changes in equity and house prices. Housing booms lead to substantial wealth gains for leveraged middle-class households and tend to decrease wealth inequality, all else equal. Stock market booms primarily boost the wealth of households at the top of the distribution. This race between the equity market and the housing market shaped wealth dynamics in postwar America and decoupled the income and wealth distribution over extended periods. The historical data also reveal that no progress has been made in reducing income and wealth inequalities between black and white households over the past 70 years, and that close to half of all American households have less wealth today in real terms than the median household had in 1970. – long read but very worthwhile study on historic US income and wealth inequality. More related content here. (pdf)

Yahoo Messenger is shutting down on July 17, redirects users to group messaging app Squirrel | TechCrunch – end of an era

New Ways for Gaming Creators to Get Started and Get Discovered on Facebook | Facebook Newsroom – in app ad bidding

New Ways to Enjoy Music on Facebook | Facebook Newsroom – rip off of musicia.ly

Apple Ignores What’s Wrong With the Mac | Sascha Segan | PCMag.com – a pretty fair critique of Mac industrial design

Apple, where’s the smarter Siri in iOS 12? USA Today – it would be more interesting if one could use the workflows created by others a la IFTTT

Meet the people who still use Myspace: ‘It’s given me so much joy’ | The Guardian – something to be said for smaller communities

Facebook Gave Data Access to Chinese Firm Flagged by U.S. Intelligence – The New York Times – it gave access to a number of vendors including the main Chinese players

The Chinese “gang” manipulating the market — now in EOS?