I think the claim is that the rich can overpay for whatever they want, driving up the price for everyone else. And that's true.

It's hard to square that with "less consumption", though...

> It's hard to square that with "less consumption", though...

Is it? I’m not sure of the truth, but it’s not hard to imagine that wealth inequality drives up the price of housing via the mechanism you describe, and increased housing prices drive down overall consumption as the non-wealthy struggle to afford basic necessities.

The idea is that if you have 1 billion in assets, let's say you make 5% per year, that's 4 million a month income. That money goes to into assets.

Plus the fact that in last 5 years assets have gone up so much means there's just a lot of wealth being invested.

Why does wealth inequality drive price inflation? Good question and not obvious. Here's the answer?

How much does a bottle of water cost?

- Supermarket? - Festival? - In a drought, when you're standing in line behind a thirsty billionaire?

People with a large relative net worths, drive asset prices up, like bids in an auction - even if they aren't the final bidder.

when the fed lowers the rates, who benefits?