June 10, 202612:07 PM EDT:
WASHINGTON, June 10 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that he might not renew the USMCA free trade deal with Canada and Mexico. Speaking at the White House, the president said he was discussing the matter with Mexican and Canadian leaders.
Reporting by Bo Erickson and Gram Slattery; Editing by Doina Chiacu
archive.org archive link: https://web.archive.org/save/https%3A%2F%2Fwww.reuters.com%2Fworld%2Ftrump-says-he-might-not-renew-usmca-2026-06-10%2F
K-shaped means the bottom half (or some large threshold) is getting poorer. China’s bottom half appears to have rapidly growing real wages, while the top is growing faster. Most western bottom halves were fine with this arrangement, until their real wages stopped growing in the 70-80s.
I’m not super happy with either scenario but there’s a reason the majority was okay with it for decades. That was the whole deal in the New Deal.
You’re right actually, now that I check it looks like the proportional drop is big but not faster than their historical growth. That big growth means until recently it’s more ramp shaped in absolute terms.
IIRC the wealth of the bottom half actually went up proportionally during the New Deal/post-WWII, although that’s about the only peacetime period it’s ever happened in. Not sure about income, although I’d guess the same.