Wealth, Income and the Presidential Campaign

As Obama and Romney argue about taxes and spending, healthcare and immigration, they're "obscuring" what is "arguably the nation's biggest challenge." "For the first time since the Great Depression, middle-class families have been losing ground for more than a decade." David Leonhardt, Washington Bureau Chief for the New York Times, calls it, "income stagnation."

Middle-class income stagnation is the result of many factors, including the digital revolution, globalization and educational attainment.  That's meant a decline in upward mobility and "the American dream" -- but not for everybody. There's a new generation of people as rich as the so-called "robber barons" of the late 19th century. Journalist Chrystia Freeland has profiled them in her book, Plutocrats: the Rise of the New Global Super Rich and the Fall of Everyone Else.