Neoliberalism is a Sham

A paper published by the International Inequalities Institute called "The Economic Consequences of Major Tax Cuts for the Rich" disputes the benefits of "trickle down" policy. Co-author David Hope:

Our research shows that the economic case for keeping taxes on the rich low is weak. Major tax cuts for the rich since the 1980s have increased income inequality, with all the problems that brings, without any offsetting gains in economic performance.

Update (December 26):  David Masciotra argues that neoliberal policies "have devastated the lives of ordinary people" and cites a RAND Corportation study:

[F]rom 1975 to 2018, the top 1 percent, taking advantage of tax policies, corporate welfare and other built-in benefits, took in $47 trillion that otherwise would have been distributed among the bottom 90 percent.

Masciotra says now is the time to promote a progressive vision for the future.

Centrists insist that "moderation" is the only sensible approach to national politics in a large and diverse country. They might have an argument worthy of consideration if the world's problems were moderate. But the impending climate apocalypse is not moderate, nor is the dramatic and worsening economic inequality, on a scale not seen since the Gilded Age. Those things cannot be addressed with compromises or half-measures.

 

Potential Methane Burst

Robert Hunziker summarizes a talk by Peter Wadhams about the release of methane along the East Siberian Arctic Shelf. While the probability of the event is not quantified, there is concern over a sudden outburst of as much as 50 gigatons.

[W]e’d be getting an extra 0.6°C more or less immediately, a sudden rise of global temperatures… Now, this is not good news because the entire move up since the 19th century has only been one degree centigrade for the planet as a whole, and here we are… adding 0.6°C instantly, within a few months or weeks, we don’t know how instant, but it would be very instant. It’s something we’ve never experienced on this planet.

Update (October 4, 2021):  Hunziker reports on record heat in Siberia and a new source of methane.

Inordinate levels of methane in Siberia were traced to hydrocarbon reservoir rocks, not wetlands, not permafrost, not microbial methane. This ancient methane is stored in carbonates.