Rising inequality can create a more highly leveraged economy, and it can then make the economy vulnerable to a crash like 2008.
Adair Turner, Baron Turner of EcchinswellIf your credit is going to grow at 10-15 percent per year in order to get your 5 percent GDP growth per year, eventually you're going to have a problem. This isn't a stable system.
Adair Turner, Baron Turner of EcchinswellIn economics, when you put together a highly elastic thing and a highly inelastic thing, you create extraordinary potential for turbulence, volatility, and for unstable prices.
Adair Turner, Baron Turner of EcchinswellThe richer people, when they get another $100,000, or another million, or 10 million, don't tend to spend it as much as the poorer people would if they got another $100 or $1,000 or $5,000. All the empirical evidence suggests that the rich tend to consume a lower proportion of income than middle and lower-income people.
Adair Turner, Baron Turner of Ecchinswell