Inequality in America

This summer, we launched a special series on inequality in America. The response from you, our listeners, was tremendous. So, this hour, we're bringing you highlights from the series.

For four days we looked at inequality in this country — the skyrocketing fortunes of a small percentage of Americans at the top, the flat fortunes of nearly everyone else, and what the resulting gap means for the country.

Americans are not against wealth, and we're not either. But the income gap between America's top tier earners and the rest has now grown so large that even Alan Greenspan warned recently it could pose a threat to capitalist democratic society.

Hear from many voices — from the super rich, to the working poor and Nobel Prize-winning economists on inequality in America.

Guests:

Robert Rubin, former Secretary of the Treasury from 1995-1999 under President Clinton and former director and chairman of the executive committee at Citigroup;
Larry Bean, editor in chief of the Robb ReportGil Lamphere is a private equity fund manager. His net worth is over a hundred million dollars.;
Roger Bailey works as an Operations Director at a television and audio production company. He is 49, makes about $70,000 a year, and has not had a raise in 6 years.;
Danielle Axon is a Certified Nursing Assistant at a nursing home. She earns $14.67 an hour.;
James Heckman, winner of the 2000 Nobel Prize in Economics and distinguished professor of Economics at the University of Chicago;
Robert Shiller, professor of economics at Yale University, author of "Irrational Exuberance" and "The New Financial Order: Risk in the 21st Century"Jack Beatty, On Point News Analyst and Senior Editor of The Atlantic Monthly;
Anna Burger, Secretary-Treasurer of the Service Employees International Union