Michael MoranApril 11, 2013 06:18

America's tax reform moment

For the first time in a generation, serious tax reform that addresses one for the causes of income inequality is possible. But will the fringes derail it?

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US President Barack Obama (R) is greeted by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) (C) and Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) as he arrives at the US Capitol for his third day of meetings with members of Congress on March 14, 2013 in Washington, DC. Obama met with Senate Republicans and House Democrats, with tax reform on the agenda. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON — As the lights burn late and bright this week in American households striving to meet Monday’s federal income tax deadline, signs suggest it may be possible for America’s warring ideological tribes to agree on the first major reform in a generation of the overcomplicated, loophole-ridden and highly regressive tax system.

'Heaven and hell' side by side in Burma

Charles M. SennottApril 8, 2013 06:00

HLAING THARYAR, Myanmar — A sprawling slum clings so close to the Pun Hlaing Golf Estate that errant drives from the tee can sometimes land on the thatched roofs of the shacks where 30,000 desperately poor people live amid squalor, open sewers and widespread disease.

In Palm Beach, Donald Trump's exclusive golf resort sits next to county jail

Charles M. SennottApril 8, 2013 06:00

WEST PALM BEACH, Florida — The criminal industrial complex with its warehouses of prisons and jails has become a kind of hidden American slum, a way to tuck away behind bars all the poverty and despair and he violence and drugs that come with it.

Jacob KushnerMarch 27, 2013 06:21

Income inequality: In Congo, a tale of two cities

In Africa's fastest-growing city, a new haven for Congo's wealthy burdens some of its poor.

Editor's Note: This story is part of a GlobalPost Special Report on income inequality around the world, "The Great Divide."

KINSHASA, Congo — On one side of the water, hand-carved wooden canoes navigate the marshy canals of a crowded fishing village. Unpainted cement houses line muddy dirt streets where women sit at stands, selling the day's catch.

On the other side, where the fishermen used to cast their nets, a posh private city is being raised from the bottom of the Congo River. Pumping millions of cubic meters of sand, the British hedge fund Hawkwood Properties is developing 1600 acres of water to become a tranquil residential haven complete with swimming pools, schools, grocery stores and a sports complex.

Benjamin CarlsonApril 2, 2013 06:22

Hong Kong's surging real estate prices shed light on rising inequality

In the world's most expensive place to own a home, almost half of the population lives in public housing.

Editor's Note: This story is part of a GlobalPost Special Report on income inequality around the world, "The Great Divide."

HONG KONG — There are few places for ordinary people to escape the mobs of tourists, touts and handbag hawkers in Tsim Sha Tsui — Hong Kong’s commercial hub — but for members of the city’s upper crust, there’s always the Platinum Lounge.

Tucked away in the perfume section of luxury retailer Lane Crawford, the Platinum Lounge is available to cardholders who spend more than $10,000 a year at the department store. Inside this opulent oasis, uniformed attendants bring free drinks and mushroom quiche on silver trays. An original Andy Warhol screen print hangs from the wall.

I am here on the invitation of Don, 30, for whom the platinum membership is an afterthought. A member of the city’s elite, Don said that in a typical month, he spends around $13,000 on his credit cards, though in December the total came to $65,000. The free miles he earns on these sums have taken him to Japan, Thailand, Singapore, Morocco, Germany, and Malaysia in the last year alone.

After the housing boom, opportunity dries up in Fernley, Nevada

Kevin Douglas GrantMarch 4, 2013 07:01

FERNLEY, Nevada — Evidence of the crash is everywhere in this high desert town. It’s there on barren cul-de-sacs that jut off from the main commercial strip, a sharp contrast to a newly remodeled Starbucks, a highly prized Walmart and a sushi restaurant. And it’s there in the “Property Available” signs that litter a forlorn landscape. The glaring words “BANK OWNED” are stamped on many of the signs, a kind of scarlet letter of unpaid debts. In the worst-hit part of town, there are simply broken fences that guard empty lots where nobody could afford to even start to build.

What's 'rich'? Depends on how old (and rich) you are

Robert Frank, CNBCJanuary 29, 2013 16:50

From security to happiness, ways to know you're wealthy.

New evidence of shocking wealth gap between US states

Joshua Berlinger, Business InsiderSeptember 20, 2012 16:14

The fight against poverty has failed to alleviate large disparities between the household wealth of different US states.