I wasn't using high rates to say that they cause economic growth. Rather, that they're uncorrelated at best. The bottom 1% is a shitty place to be, but it's not where most of our problems lay. Lack of wealth in the middle class is what is making this recovery so poor. Creation of new wealth does very little when it all goes to a very few. Robert Reich has a new book on the topic that is interesting, and there's also this classic from the 80's that predicted this disaster: Mink Coats Don't Trickle Down
Thanks for the reading suggestions. I am of the opinion that a lot of people considered experts don't know what they are talking about. As I am not even an expert, I have to keep an open mind and look forward to opportunities to learn more and find out where I am wrong. The preview pages I was able to read on Amazon gave me the feeling that Mink Coats Don't Trickle Down is not much more rigorous than the title suggests. And the title is simple to refute. Mink coats don't have to trickle down. They can stay up there, flying in the sky, as depicted on the cover. The trapper (or farmer) and the tanner and the furrier have already been paid. As has the button maker, zipper maker and fabric maker (and farther back, a cotton or wool or nylon or viscose producer). A seamstress has long since forgotten about that coat and is now putting food on the table sewing a new coat. Checks to various distributors, warehouse operators and truckers have cleared. A photographer and copy writer and model and other ad agency personnel are happily on contract. A store clerk and manager and interior designer and janitor and landlord have all gotten their slices of the pie. The stylish one-percenter strolling out of the boutique has already made life better for dozens of regular people before any activist has a chance to splatter her with pig's blood. What happens after is immaterial ... though I expect the coat will be welcomed by dry cleaners, closet organizers, and eventually a fancy second-hand fashion store. Everyone wins but the minks. "Trickle down" is a dumb metaphor. It's a flood.