The Crisis and the Stretching of Inequalities: What Links? What Lessons?

Over the last twenty years, income inequality has been stretching upwards all around the world. This movement has been particularly significant at the top of the income scale. The article examines the links between the changes in the income distribution and the outburst of the recent financial crisis. It relates the increasing debt of the poor to the stagnation of their income as well as the income of the middle class. But it does not conclude that a change of trend of inequality is a necessary precondition for a recovery. A new path can result only from simultaneous national policies aiming at similar objectives. They could deal with reductions in rents, return to full employment, an increase in education and skills and a new tax policy.