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Conservatives believe the economy functions better if the rich have more money and everyone else has less. But they're wrong. It's just the opposite.

Democrats like Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders want to raise taxes on the rich, saying it will solve inequality. It won't. All that will do is significantly reduce incentives to work, save, and invest. But I say inequality is not the problem. The problem is a lack of growth.

Income inequality is troubling because, among other things, it means that many people in our society don't have the opportunities to advance themselves.

I fall into the camp that income inequality is the biggest problem we face.

The difference between rich and poor is becoming more extreme, and as income inequality widens the wealth gap in major nations, education, health and social mobility are all threatened.

In middle-income countries, inequality becomes a problem because you can see there is a layer of people who are doing well, while the poor are still stuck there.

I agree that income disparity is the great issue of our time. It is even broader and more difficult than the civil rights issues of the 1960s. The '99 percent' is not just a slogan. The disparity in income has left the middle class with lowered, not rising, income, and the poor unable to reach the middle class.

Research suggests that large divisions of income and wealth weaken demand and generate economic imbalances that create instability and undermine growth.

One of the great political and economic challenges of our time is figuring out the balance between wealth that benefits society and wealth that distorts.

Some liberals think that describing any role that education gaps play in creating income inequality is some sort of sellout - that, in essence, you're telling the middle class, 'Tough luck; you should have stayed in college.'