Sox First

This year, I have blogged here and here about the growing income inequality in the world's richest country. The gap between the rich and the poor is growing, and that's fuelling the kind of volatility and discontent that's given rise to the Tea Party.

Now we have a report from Slate that incomes in the United States are now not only more unequal than in Germany, France, and the United Kingdom. Income in the US more unequal than in Guyana, Nicaragua, and Venezuela. Slate's Timothy Noah writes: "Income inequality is actually declining in Latin America even as it continues to increase in the United States. Economically speaking, the richest nation on earth is starting to resemble a banana republic."

The only difference is that the US big enough to ensure there is a sufficient geographic distance between the rich and poor. Out of sight, out of mind. Which makes it all the more dangerous.

• Income inequality kills
• The rich get richer
• America: the great inequality
• Inequality's social impact
• Obama's tax deal, inequality and financial crises
• Inequality worse in America than it is in Egypt, Tunisia and Yemen
• More income inequality = less trust
• Growing global income inequality: a failure of capitalism
• Income inequality hits the mainstream