INEQUALITY WATCH. If you're surprised to learn that, in 2005, inequality increased yet again, you've not been paying attention. What is surprising is that incomes for everyone but the top 1 percent stagnated. According to Emmanuel Saez, who routinely does the lord's work collating the IRS data, "2005 shows a very large increase in income concentration: the top 1% gains 14% in real terms from 2004 while the bottom 99% gains less than 1% (when including capital gains). The [previous] record peak of 2000 is surpassed even though 2005 is less of a high capital gains, high stock option year than 2000. By 2005, it looks like top incomes are showing strongly along all components: wages, business income, dividends, and capital gains." That last bit means the underlying drivers of inequality are growing more robust. It's not just stock options and capital gains any more, it's wage increases and income and all the rest. --Ezra Klein
