Sep 17, 2020 - Economy & Business

Income inequality gap widened to record highs in 2019

Felix Salmon, author of Capital
Data: Census Bureau; Chart: Axios Visuals

If your household has an income of more than $200,000 per year, it was always in the top 10% — until 2019.

By the numbers: New data from the Census Bureau shows that the gap between the richest and everybody else widened to record highs in 2019.

  • The minimum amount a household needed to earn to get into the top 10% of households, in 2019 dollars, was $201,150 last year — up 7.2% from 2018.
  • The median household income was $68,703.

The bottom line: Real incomes for the top 10% grew by $13,519 in a single year. Real median household income has grown by roughly the same amount — $14,377 — since 1978.

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Dion Rabouin, author of Markets
Oct 20, 2020 - Economy & Business

The 2020 holiday season may just kill Main Street

Illustration: Eniola Odetunde/Axios

Online retail and e-commerce have been chipping away at brick-and-mortar businesses over the years but the combination of the coronavirus pandemic and the 2020 holiday season may prove to be a knockout blow.

The state of play: Anxious consumers say financial concerns and health worries will push them to spend less money this year and to do more of their limited spending online.

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Ben Geman, author of Generate
Oct 21, 2020 - Energy & Environment

America leads global poll on divisions over natural gas

Reproduced from Pew Research Center; Chart: Axios Visuals

The U.S. is hardly the only country with a political split over natural gas, but it's particularly stark here.

Driving the news: A newly released Pew Research Center survey on global attitudes about the fossil fuels shows one takeaway how gas, coal and oil dominate the world's energy mix.

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Mark Meadows: "We are not going to control the pandemic"

White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows defended Vice President Pence's decision to continue traveling and campaigning despite his exposure to aides who have tested positive for COVID-19, saying Sunday that Pence is exempt from CDC guidelines because he is "essential personnel."

Why it matters: CDC guidelines call for people who have been exposed to the virus to quarantine for 14 days. Meadows said on CNN's "State of the Union" that Pence will wear a mask when he travels and argued that "he's not just campaigning," pointing to the Israel-Sudan normalization agreement announced by the White House last week.

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