In 1913, President Woodrow Wilson opened the nation's door to an era of reform. To help him, he brought to Washington men imbued with a progressive spirit-and in some, grudges as well! Before work on reforms got underway, two high ranking officials of the Treasury Department attacked a local bank over its banking practices. The bank officers had close ties to Wall Street; the Treasury officials were no friends of Wall Street (with scars to prove it). Aggressive bank examinations, hostile interviews, and accusatory letters ensued, eventually resulting in the bank filing an injunction against the government. But after an acrimonious court hearing, the injunction appeared to have failed. Indeed, a grand jury indicted the bank officers of perjury. In 1916, a three-week criminal trial of the bankers took place in which former Presidents Taft and Roosevelt appeared on behalf of the bankers. It was a cause celebre in the nation's capital and much of the country. When the verdict was reached it was clear "bad blood" had been spilled everywhere-and this nasty, little war had been more than just about reform.

Norman Bruce Ream was born in southwestern Pennsylvania in 1844, the son of a farmer. He exhibited a commercial sense early on when he nursed a lame duck back to health and sold it for a profit. But the Civil War interrupted his mercantile ambitions. Wounded twice and promoted to lieutenant, he came home a hero. He went west after the war and became a merchant, first in Illinois and then Iowa. His businesses failed. Undeterred, he headed for Chicago and the Union Stock Yards. He worked as a commission merchant, but then traded his mud-caked boots for French kid boots and became a trader at the Board of Trade. His analytical mind was made for the grain and provision pits. Money poured in especially after helping in one of P.D. Armour's pork corners; Ream had quickly become one of the city's best plungers. By the mid-1880s, he was married and the father of several children - and also a millionaire. He lived on Chicago's Prairie Avenue alongside the likes of George M. Pullman and Marshall Field. He began investing in real estate, urban transit companies, and railroad stock. Another millionaire neighbor, John W.Doane, interested him in consolidating and financing industrial enterprises. At the end of the 1890s, Mr. Ream had been involved in the creation of such companies as Glucose Sugar Refining, National Biscuit, and Federal Steel. Finance capitalism, however, was based primarily on Wall Street. So, by the turn of the century, Mr. Ream was traveling to New York City, impressing financiers like J. Pierpont Morgan. He would help Morgan put together the United States Steel Corporation and International Harvester Company, and serve on the board of directors of many enterprises. He would also be at Morgan's side during the banking panic of 1907. After the move, Ream and his family lived in a luxury apartment in New York City and a mansion in Connecticut. But life became turbulent in his remaining years. Public sentiment soured towards Wall Street and the wealthy (to include Norman B. Ream). This, along with social indiscretions from some of his children, kept the Ream name in the press well after his death in 1915. Then, gradually, his life was forgotten.

Paul Ryscavage, a noted labor economist, seeks to analyze various aspects of a major contemporary economic problem: the growing inequality of income in society.

What is income inequality? How is it measured? Is the middle class really declining? How does it relate to poverty? How long has inequality been rising in the US? Have there been other periods in history when income differences were as large as they are today? What are the causes of growing income and wage inequality? The author addresses these and other conceptual issues in eight carefully reasoned and clearly presented chapters. Concluding with an analysis and comparison of trends in wage inequality in other developed countries, he asks the final speculative question: How much more growth in inequality can our society withstand?

What is income inequality? How is it measured? Is the middle class really declining? How does it relate to poverty? How long has inequality been rising in the US? Have there been other periods in history when income differences were as large as they are today? What are the causes of growing income and wage inequality? The author addresses these and other conceptual issues in eight carefully reasoned and clearly presented chapters. Concluding with an analysis and comparison of trends in wage inequality in other developed countries, he asks the final speculative question: How much more growth in inequality can our society withstand?

The ethical question implied by discreparcies between the distribution of income and the economic foundations of our country is at the heart of much of today's political debate. The answer according to the left and often the mainstream media would require major changes in the way our economy functions so as to further redistribute income among households. Higher tax rates on the upper middle class and rich, more restrictive corporate regulations (including higher taxes), more centralized economic planning, in short more governmental intervention into the free market, would all be in our future and their deleterious effects would soon begin working their way into American life, according to Paul Ryscavage in Rethinking the Income Gap. This book is written by an economist who has spent his career studying and analyzing income inequality. News reports of mushrooming fortunes, most recently among CEOs and hedge fund managers, alongside reports of a struggling middle class and an intractable poverty class, have been common topics for the nation's media. Ryscavage asserts that the media has misused many of the facts surrounding the increase in income inequality. He calls for a reexamination of the facts and what they mean and do not mean and ultimately shows that, contrary to media reports, income inequality can no longer be used as a measure of economic fairness. He also writes that, notwithstanding the economic downturn of 2008, the "real" news that the media have not reported is the expansion in recent decades of our nation's middle class, especially the upper middle class. Ryscavage argues that we must reexamine what the income gap means. Its relevance as a measure of economic fairness has diminished significantly in recent years. Instead, the income gap is now linked to a variety of economic problems confronting the nation and used as a rhetorical device for stirring up social concern and advancing political agendas. Rethinking the income gap is overdue. This book does just that.

The ethical question implied by discreparcies between the distribution of income and the economic foundations of our country is at the heart of much of today's political debate. The answer according to the left--and often the mainstream media--would require major changes in the way our economy functions so as to further redistribute income among households. Higher tax rates on the upper middle class and rich, more restrictive corporate regulations (including higher taxes), more centralized economic planning, in short more governmental intervention into the free market, would all be in our future--and their deleterious effects would soon begin working their way into American life, according to Paul Ryscavage in Rethinking the Income Gap.

This book is written by an economist who has spent his career studying and analyzing income inequality. News reports of mushrooming fortunes, most recently among CEOs and hedge fund managers, alongside reports of a struggling middle class and an intractable poverty class, have been common topics for the nation's media. Ryscavage asserts that the media has misused many of the facts surrounding the increase in income inequality. He calls for a reexamination of the facts and what they mean and do not mean--and ultimately shows that, contrary to media reports, income inequality can no longer be used as a measure of economic fairness. He also writes that, notwithstanding the economic downturn of 2008, the "real" news that the media have not reported is the expansion in recent decades of our nation's middle class, especially the upper middle class.

Ryscavage argues that we must reexamine what the income gap means. Its relevance as a measure of economic fairness has diminished significantly in recent years. Instead, the income gap is now linked to a variety of economic problems confronting the nation and used as a rhetorical device for stirring up social concern and advancing political agendas. Rethinking the income gap is overdue. This book does just that.