Trickle-Down Fallacies

More evidence this morning that the rich are doing swell.

Reuters reports that luxury retail is doing fantastic, driven by a 66 percent jump in Michael Kors’ stock. The reporters further find that “luxury brands and retailers have shown resilience this summer despite a slowing of shopping by Europeans and bumpy stock markets.”

That’s because the rich don’t live like you and I. Economist Emmanuel Saez reveals the underling cause in his exploration of the nature of the recovery since 2009. In his revised his estimates, he found that “the top 1% captured 93% of the income gains in the first year of recovery.”

Higher luxury sales suggest that the robust recovery for the rich continues unabated. Never mind that wages and benefits are down, the 1% are buying shoes.