Via Mark Thoma, Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson react to Allan Meltzer claiming that the top one percent is surging everywhere, even in Sweden, so it’s not a proper political issue.

As Acemoglu and Robinson say, there’s other strange stuff in Meltzer; how does a rising premium for education explain soaring shares for a tiny segment of the highly educated? But as they say, the premise about a global shock doesn’t stand up to evidence — not even the evidence Meltzer presents.

And you have no business talking about international income distribution if you don’t know about the invaluable World Top Incomes Database. What does this database tell us about Sweden versus America?

Hey, it looks just the same — or, actually, not.

Yes, the top one percent has risen a bit in Sweden. But how anyone could look at this and see the story as similar boggles the mind.