IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/pra/mprapa/99274.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Закон Сохранения Реального Богатства И Рост Неравенства
[Law of conservation of real wealth and rising inequality]

Author

Listed:
  • Yashin, Pete

Abstract

Nonfinancial and financial capital conflated in modern economy. Using accounting approach we separated them and compared the corresponding total values of nonfinancial capital and wealth. We consider these values to be equal. This statement is named “law of conservation of real wealth”: real value of aggregate wealth is equal to the total value of nonfinancial assets. The law holds automatically by virtue of balance sheet identity, if financial assets’ value equal to the counterpart obligations securing them. However such equality can be violated when securities freely circulating in modern financial markets lose their link with corresponding obligations. The resulting difference is equal to the divergence between the aggregate wealth and total value of nonfinancial assets, which indicates a violation of the law in nominal terms. We consider this divergence as excess unsecured component of wealth, whereas the real wealth continues to match the nonfinancial assets’ value. Such unsecured wealth can only arise due to discrepancy between savings and investment, along with difference between total Haig–Simons income (including capital gains) and expenditures in real sector. It makes impossible to display correctly flows simultaneously with stocks. Deviations of securities' value from corresponding obligations commonly accepted as temporary. However, along with cyclical fluctuations the unsecured US financial assets value has been steadily growing since the 1980s, exceeding $11 trillion in 2016. We consider the observed nominal violation of the law of conservation of wealth is a consequence of unlimited capitalists’ enrichment aspirations. Marketable securities are the tools they use to embody such desire; the effect enhanced by the procedures of corporate mergers and acquisitions. Yet, the unsecured wealth inflate financial bubbles; its growth turns out a sufficient condition for wealth and income inequality rising. Then the aggregate consumer demand growth is hindered, and appetite for capital investment decreases. Unsecured component of capitalists’ profit is absorbed by an (unsecured) increase in the value of financial assets; it is not a source of capital investment; on the contrary, high financial returns contribute to crowding out investment from the real sector. Productivity growth slows down. Thus, increase in inequality reduces both aggregate demand and supply, which inhibits economic growth. US statistics confirms the above trends which led to the global crisis of 2007-2008. It has not cured the economy; unsecured wealth continues to grow increasing inequality, which dumps output growth. Black swans in 2020 have inspired inevitable arriving of new crisis.

Suggested Citation

  • Yashin, Pete, 2020. "Закон Сохранения Реального Богатства И Рост Неравенства [Law of conservation of real wealth and rising inequality]," MPRA Paper 99274, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:99274
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/99274/1/MPRA_paper_99274.pdf
    File Function: original version
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Nicholas Kaldor, 1955. "Alternative Theories of Distribution," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 23(2), pages 83-100.
    2. Thomas Piketty & Gabriel Zucman, 2014. "Capital is Back: Wealth-Income Ratios in Rich Countries 1700–2010," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 129(3), pages 1255-1310.
    3. Roine, Jesper & Waldenström, Daniel, 2014. "Long-Run Trends in the Distribution of Income and Wealth," Working Paper Series 1021, Research Institute of Industrial Economics.
    4. Thomas Piketty & Emmanuel Saez & Gabriel Zucman, 2018. "Distributional National Accounts: Methods and Estimates for the United States," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 133(2), pages 553-609.
    5. Simon Kuznets & Lillian Epstein & Elizabeth Jenks, 1946. "National Income and Its Composition, 1919-1938, Volume II," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number kuzn41-3.
    6. Milanovic, Branko, 2015. "Increasing capital income share and its effect on personal income inequality," MPRA Paper 67661, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    7. Tobin, James, 1982. "Money and Finance in the Macroeconomic Process," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 14(2), pages 171-204, May.
    8. Jean-Paul Fitoussi & Francesco Saraceno, 2009. "How Deep is a Crisis? Policy Responses and Structural Factors Behind Diverging Performances," Documents de Travail de l'OFCE 2009-31, Observatoire Francais des Conjonctures Economiques (OFCE).
    9. Dirk Bezemer & Michael Hudson, 2016. "Finance Is Not the Economy: Reviving the Conceptual Distinction," Journal of Economic Issues, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 50(3), pages 745-768, July.
    10. Christian Flamant, 2015. "Again on Piketty's Capital in the Twenty-First Century Or Why National Accounts and Three Simple Laws Should not be a Substitute for Economic Theory [De nouveau sur le Capital au 21ème siècle de Pi," Post-Print hal-01958237, HAL.
    11. Jesper Roine & Daniel Waldenström, 2012. "On The Role Of Capital Gains In Swedish Income Inequality," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 58(3), pages 569-587, September.
    12. Facundo Alvaredo & Lucas Chancel & Thomas Piketty & Gabriel Zucman, 2018. "Distributional National Accounts," Post-Print halshs-03342488, HAL.
    13. Anthony B. Atkinson & Salvatore Morelli, 2011. "Economic crises and Inequality," Human Development Research Papers (2009 to present) HDRP-2011-06, Human Development Report Office (HDRO), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
    14. Galbraith, James K., 2012. "Inequality and Instability: A Study of the World Economy Just Before the Great Crisis," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199855650.
    15. Christian Flamant, 2015. "Again on Piketty's Capital in the Twenty-First Century or Why National Accounts and Three Simple Laws Should not be a Substitute for Economic Theory," World Economic Review, World Economics Association, vol. 2015(5), pages 1-22, July.
    16. Avi J. Cohen, 2003. "Retrospectives: Whatever Happened to the Cambridge Capital Theory Controversies?," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 17(1), pages 199-214, Winter.
    17. Raghuram G. Rajan, 2010. "Fault Lines: How Hidden Fractures Still Threaten the World Economy," Economics Books, Princeton University Press, edition 1, number 9111.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Yashin, Pete, 2020. "Law of conservation of real wealth and rising inequality," MPRA Paper 99308, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Yashin, Pete, 2020. "Financialization increases inequality and leads economy to a dead end," MPRA Paper 101061, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. Yashin, Pete, 2020. "Финансиалиация Усиливает Неравенство И Заводит Экономику В Тупик [Financialization increases inequality and leads economy to a dead end]," MPRA Paper 101063, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    4. Pascal Paul, 2018. "Historical Patterns of Inequality and Productivity around Financial Crises," 2018 Meeting Papers 583, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    5. Waldenstrom, Daniel & Bastani, Spencer, 2018. "How Should Capital Be Taxed? Theory and Evidence from Sweden," CEPR Discussion Papers 12880, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    6. Thilo N. H. Albers & Charlotte Bartels & Moritz Schularick, 2020. "The Distribution of Wealth in Germany, 1895-2018," ECONtribute Policy Brief Series 001, University of Bonn and University of Cologne, Germany.
    7. Boschini, Anne & Gunnarsson, Kristin & Roine, Jesper, 2020. "Women in top incomes – Evidence from Sweden 1971–2017," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 181(C).
    8. Roman Bobilev & Anne Boschini & Jesper Roine, 2020. "Women in the Top of the Income Distribution: What Can We Learn From LIS-Data?," Italian Economic Journal: A Continuation of Rivista Italiana degli Economisti and Giornale degli Economisti, Springer;Società Italiana degli Economisti (Italian Economic Association), vol. 6(1), pages 63-107, March.
    9. Pascal Paul, 2023. "Historical Patterns of Inequality and Productivity around Financial Crises," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 55(7), pages 1641-1665, October.
    10. Gabriel Zucman, 2019. "Global Wealth Inequality," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 11(1), pages 109-138, August.
    11. Spencer Bastani & Daniel Waldenström, 2018. "How should capital be taxed? The Swedish experience," Working Papers hal-02878153, HAL.
    12. Till Treeck, 2014. "Did Inequality Cause The U.S. Financial Crisis?," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(3), pages 421-448, July.
    13. Matthew Fisher-Post, 2020. "Factor Shares in the long run," World Inequality Lab Working Papers hal-02876978, HAL.
    14. Roberto Iacono & Elisa Palagi, 2020. "Still the lands of equality? On the heterogeneity of individual factor income shares in the Nordics," LEM Papers Series 2020/13, Laboratory of Economics and Management (LEM), Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies, Pisa, Italy.
    15. Bertrand Garbinti & Jonathan Goupille-Lebret & Thomas Piketty, 2017. "Income Inequality in France, 1900-2014: Evidence from Distributional National Accounts," PSE Working Papers halshs-02658875, HAL.
    16. Vincent Geloso & Peter Lindert, 2020. "Relative costs of living, for richer and poorer, 1688–1914," Cliometrica, Springer;Cliometric Society (Association Francaise de Cliométrie), vol. 14(3), pages 417-442, September.
    17. Aaberge, Rolf & Atkinson, Anthony B. & Modalsli, Jørgen, 2020. "Estimating long-run income inequality from mixed tabular data: Empirical evidence from Norway, 1875–2017," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 187(C).
    18. Filip Novokmet & Thomas Piketty & Gabriel Zucman, 2018. "From Soviets to oligarchs: inequality and property in Russia 1905-2016," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 16(2), pages 189-223, June.
    19. Björklund, Anders & Waldenström, Daniel, 2021. "Facts and Myths in the Popular Debate about Inequality in Sweden," Working Paper Series 1392, Research Institute of Industrial Economics.
    20. Joachim Hubmer & Per Krusell & Anthony A. Smith Jr., 2020. "Sources of US Wealth Inequality: Past, Present, and Future," NBER Chapters, in: NBER Macroeconomics Annual 2020, volume 35, pages 391-455, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    capital; wealth; inequality; accounting identity; Haig–Simons income; crises;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E01 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - General - - - Measurement and Data on National Income and Product Accounts and Wealth; Environmental Accounts
    • G10 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - General (includes Measurement and Data)

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:99274. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Joachim Winter (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/vfmunde.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.