REAL CLEAR POLITICS: The Myth of American Inequality. Everything you’ve been hearing from academics and journalists about about income equality in America is wrong. No, it hasn’t been increasing. No, it’s not worse in America than in Europe (and middle-class Americans are much richer than middle-class Europeans). And no, the tax burden on the rich hasn’t been shrinking– their share of the tax burden has actually been increasing. Phil Gramm explains why in his lecture accepting the Manhattan Institute’s 2024 Hayek Book Prize for The Myth of American Inequality, co-authored with John Early and the late Robert Ekelund.