Money Love

How it increases poverty and weakens bank regulation.

The Almightier, Puck magazine, 1907.

More than half of all Americans have money in the stock market, mostly in underfunded retirement accounts. We used to expect an annualized average rate of return of 10 percent. But during the past decade investors became habituated to an average rate of return closer to 15 percent. That larger return is made possible, in part, by brutal labor market efficiencies: a fissured workplace that outsources labor violations to staffing companies and franchisees; forcing gig workers to be independent contractors, which in some cases translates into a sub-minimum wage; and 14 years without an increase in the measly $7.25 federal minimum hourly wage. That’s the subject of my Washington Post review of new books on poverty by Matthew Desmond (author of Evicted) and Mark Robert Rank. You can read it here.

Also, why do Democrats let banks boss them around? Perhaps it isn’t coincidental that the banks, starting in 2016, evened up the imbalance in their political contributions by giving more to Democrats. By 2020 it was $29 million to Republicans and $26 million to Democrats. The gap widened again in 2022 but Democrats still claimed 40 percent of banks’ political contributions. In 2020 Signature Bank and Silicon Valley Bank favored Democrats, Silicon Valley Bank overwhelmingly (96 percent!). In 2022 Signature fell back to giving Democrats 40 percent but Silicon Valley Bank gave Democrats 77 percent. More on all this in my latest New Republic piece. You can read it here.