{"id":25084,"date":"2014-04-28T21:25:02","date_gmt":"2014-04-29T02:25:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/prefblog.com\/?p=25084"},"modified":"2014-04-28T21:25:02","modified_gmt":"2014-04-29T02:25:02","slug":"april-28-2014","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/prefblog.com\/?p=25084","title":{"rendered":"April 28, 2014"},"content":{"rendered":"

Assiduous Readers will recall that I ascribe increasing income inequality to technology. So I was astonished at the results of a Pew Poll on the subject<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\"PewInequalityPoll\"<\/a>
Click for Big<\/i>
(Sorry for lousy quality; can’t figure it out…)<\/p>\n

Technological advance isn’t even mentioned! One possible explanation is that the poll’s question referred to “the rich”, whereas I think of income inequality in terms of quintiles; certainly the response “tax system” has a large effect if we think in terms of the gap between the fabled 1% and the rest of us (particularly in America) rather than, say, the gap between the second and fourth quintile. Even still, however, a lot of billionaires are self-made technologists<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Every year FORBES crunches the numbers to find out which Americans rank the richest\u2013and each year it gets harder to join the exclusive Forbes 400 list. But you don\u2019t have to inherit a fortune to become a Forbes 400 billionaire. In fact, the majority of our Forbes 400 members\u2013273 of them\u2013scrapped their way onto our list through their own efforts.<\/p>\n

The self-made differ somewhat from their Forbes 400 counterparts in terms of how they gained their wealth. The most obvious difference between the groups, not surprisingly, is that many of the self-made earned fortunes through technology. A whopping 45 tycoons\u2013nearly 25% of the Forbes 400\u2013made their billions in tech, making it the second-most-popular industry overall for launching onto the Forbes 400.
…<\/b>
After technology, real estate produced the next largest group of self-made Forbes 400 members.
…<\/b>
Of course, the self-made and the inheritors share the Number 1 way of getting rich, which has long been \u201cinvesting\u201d\u2013a catch-all category that describes hedge fund billionaires as well as others, like Warren Buffett, who have stakes in many industries.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

We now know the secret of prosperity: corporate welfare<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne is pledging $2.5-billion in new grants to attract more businesses to the province and help others expand.<\/p>\n

The 10-year Jobs and Prosperity Fund, announced Monday, will be contained in this week\u2019s budget, which could trigger an election.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Fifties are here<\/a>!<\/p>\n

Finance Minister Joe Oliver today announced that the Government of Canada successfully issued $1.5 billion in 50-year bonds.<\/p>\n

This inaugural ultra-long issue is the first of its kind for the Government and is in line with its commitment since 2012\u201313 to reallocate short-term bond issuance towards long-term bonds to help reduce refinancing risk.<\/p>\n

Quick Facts<\/p>\n