How the filibuster is helping to create economic inequality

At the Washington Monthly today, I've written a post about a fascinating subject: how the U.S. senate's filibuster has helped create economic inequality. There's a new political science study on the subject, based on data between 1940 and 2006. The authors find that the use of the filibuster, as well as Congressional inaction generally, is associated with increases in economic inequality. The reason? The filibuster helps create a "status quo bias" -- in other words, nothing getting done, no legislation passed that might ease inequality. The filibuster is just one of many countermajoritarian veto points in our political system which makes change difficult -- and conservative do-nothingism more likely. Do read my entire post for more.