I’m mesmerized by this wonderful graph at the NYTimes showing the share of the nation’s income earned by the top 1 percent. The most obvious feature is that the current income distribution reflects where we were right before the onset of the great depression. The other thing striking, to me at least, is the range of graph. 40 years ago the richest 1% had barely one-third of the relative wealth they do today. They represented less than one-tenth of the nations income, but today represent nearly one-quarter! That’s an incredible change.

The annotations on the graph really suggested that this change in distribution could be attributed to the dramatic changes in the top marginal tax bracket. Time to increase taxes in the top tax brackets.