John Burn-Murdoch’s piece “Why the middle class is right to feel squeezed” (Data Points, January 4 ) slices and dices the income distribution data in a most edifying way. He finds that the trend in overall income inequality in the US since the 1990s is flat. But that masks the fact that, while the poorest are catching up with the middle of the income distribution, the very richest are rapidly pulling away from the middle.

Burn-Murdoch’s observations comport with my work on the rapid increase of the US money supply that began with the Covid pandemic in February 2020. Following the money supply surge, asset prices soared, and the very rich became very, very rich. Indeed, at the onset of the pandemic, US billionaires’ wealth amounted to 14.2 per cent of GDP. Currently, it stands at a stunning 21.2 per cent of GDP.

When it comes to changes in the income distribution, changes in the money supply are far from neutral.

Professor Steve H Hanke The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, US