A new report shows the wealthiest 10% of Americans are keeping the U.S. economy going right now, accounting for nearly half of all consumer spending. Meanwhile, working- and middle-class Americans have had to cut down on spending.

The wealthiest 10% make $250,000 or more each year.

Federal Reserve data shows credit card delinquency among non-wealthy Americans is the highest it’s been since 2011.

 The sight of celebrity mansions and movie landmarks reduced to ashes can make it seem like the wildfires roaring through the Los Angeles area affected a constellation of movie stars.

But a drive through the charred neighborhoods around Altadena shows that the fires also burned through a remarkable haven for generations of Black families avoiding discriminatory housing practices elsewhere. They have been communities of racial and economic diversity, where many people own their own homes.

The 2017 tax cut law signed by President Donald Trump cut income tax rates essentially across the board.  AllSides highlights content from Gigafact, a network of newsrooms that respond to online claims. View the full fact brief on Wisconsin Watch.

President Joe Biden has sought to bolster his outreach to Black voters as polls show him with lower-than-usual support within that demographic.

In graduation remarks May 19 at Atlanta’s Morehouse College, a historically Black institution, Biden touted achievements for Black Americans that he said were reached during his presidency.

"Today, record numbers of Black Americans have jobs, health insurance, and more (wealth) than ever," Biden said. 

A report by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police has been making the rounds, and its message is not pretty: the country is hurtling toward social collapse. The “Whole-of-Government Five-Year Trends for Canada” points to compounding crises, from economic stagnation and ecological disaster to technological disruption and a general erosion of trust in institutions.

Americans are increasingly unlikely to believe that those who work hard will get ahead and that their children will be better off than they are, according to two recent polls.

Why it matters: The polls reflect concerns that the American dream is dimming — or already extinguished.

Driving the news: The WSJ asked respondents whether they believe "the American Dream — that if you work hard you'll get ahead — still holds true."

Google CEO Sundar Pichai received a hefty pay raise last year, making him one of the highest-paid CEOs in America. Last week, his company announced the authorization of a $70 billion stock buyback.

Meanwhile, Google parent Alphabet has been aggressively cutting costs, including the elimination of 12,000 jobs, in response to slowing revenue growth.

Earth Day is Saturday! Hooray?

"Saving humanity from the climate crisis," says EarthDay.org, requires us to "push away from the dirty fossil fuel economy."

Sounds logical.

But my latest video explains why doing that is cruel to poor people.

U.S. President Joe Biden will seek to raise the Medicare tax on high earners and push for more drug price negotiations to help keep the federal health insurance program solvent through at least 2050 as part of his budget proposal this week, the White House said.

The tax increase from 3.8 percent to 5 percent on earned and unearned income above $400,000 is part of a package of proposals aimed at extending the solvency of Medicare’s Hospital Insurance (HI) Trust Fund by at least 25 years, the White House said in a statement on Tuesday.

Billionaires have had a bad year.

Globally, the world’s billionaires lost nearly $2 trillion, combined, in 2022, according to Forbes. The United States’ billionaires lost $660 billion collectively, the highest of any country by Forbes’s count, as tech stock prices took a nosedive fueled by rising interest rates, soaring inflation and a worsening economy.

Of America’s billionaires, Tesla, SpaceX, and newly minted Twitter CEO Elon Musk saw his fortune diminish the most. Musk’s net worth dipped by about $115 billion this year, according to Forbes.