The crisis enveloping global financial markets since August 2007 was triggered by actual and prospective credit losses on US mortgages. Was the United States just unlucky to have been the first to experience a housing crisis? Or was it inherently more susceptible to one? I examine the limited...

Profits growth has been strong in many developed economies in recent years, and the profit share -- the share of factor income going to capital -- has been high compared with historical experience. This paper shows that, rather than being a recent phenomenon, profit shares have trended upwards...