Wealth, Income and the Presidential Campaign

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As Obama and Romney argue about taxes and spending, healthcare and immigration, they're "obscuring" what is "arguably the nation's biggest challenge." "For the first time since the Great Depression, middle-class families have been losing ground for more than a decade." David Leonhardt, Washington Bureau Chief for the New York Times, calls it, "income stagnation."

Middle-class income stagnation is the result of many factors, including the digital revolution, globalization and educational attainment.  That's meant a decline in upward mobility and "the American dream" -- but not for everybody. There's a new generation of people as rich as the so-called "robber barons" of the late 19th century. Journalist Chrystia Freeland has profiled them in her book, Plutocrats: the Rise of the New Global Super Rich and the Fall of Everyone Else.

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Warren Olney