Last Straw

Income Inequal­ity and Fin­an­cial Crises:

David A. Moss, an eco­nomic and policy his­tor­ian at the Har­vard Busi­ness School, has spent years study­ing income inequal­ity. While he has long believed that the grow­ing dis­par­ity between the rich and poor was harm­ful to the people on the bot­tom, he says he hadn’t seen the risks to the world of fin­ance, where many of the richest earn their great fortunes.

Now, as he stud­ies the fin­an­cial crisis of 2008, Mr. Moss says that even Wall Street may have some­thing ser­i­ous to fear from inequal­ity — namely, another crisis.