This opinion piece,  The President Is Missing, by Paul Krugman was brought to my attention by LlandaR. In the article Krugman says:

What’s going on here? Despite the ferocious opposition he has faced since the day he took office, Mr. Obama is clearly still clinging to his vision of himself as a figure who can transcend America’s partisan differences. And his political strategists seem to believe that he can win re-election by positioning himself as being conciliatory and reasonable, by always being willing to compromise.

I can believe that Paul Krugman is on to part of the problem, but I think that the bigger problem is that President Obama does not understand the situation and the stakes.  That is why I have called for an intervention from economists such as Krugman, Kuttner, Stiglitz, Galbraith, Romer, Reich, etc.  They have to find out what Obama understands about the damage that highly unequal wealth distribution does to the chances for an economic recovery.  If he doesn’t understand the issue, how can he be expected to take a strong stand?

Earlier today, I posted the graphic that shows Wealth and Tax Distribution. While the wealthy top percent or so do earn an inordinate fraction of the income, the Republicans point out that they pay an even higher percentage of the income taxes. However, the Republicans never tell you how income does not include such items as unrealized capital gains.  That is why I felt a measure of wealth versus taxes was a better indicator of the disparity.

Another post I made today, The L Curve Of Income, points out that:

In Bill Gates’ best year he increased his net worth by $50 billion!

Now the naysayers are going to claim unrealized gains don’t count because they could go away almost as easily as they came.  It is true that there is year to year volatility, but the long term average increase in the value of the American stock market is on the order of 10% to 12% per year.  So the wealthy may have their ups and downs, but all they have to do is invest in an index mutual fund to make an average of 10% to 12% a year in increased wealth.  As long as they leave it unrealized, they pay no taxes on it.