How would you feel if you found out that US income inequality had not risen over the past 60 years; the rich had not taken the lion’s share of economic growth since the 1980s; and the poorest half of US society had about the same share of total income in 2020 as they had in 1960?

I suspect many, like me, would feel pleasure tinged with scepticism. Happiness because it suggests the world’s most powerful economy was producing fairer outcomes and disbelief because the conjectures run counter to almost everything we have been told about US society.

These are not just hypothetical questions; the results lie at the centre of an analysis by Gerald Auten and David Splinter — officials, respectively, at the US Treasury’s Office of Tax Analysis and the US Congress Joint Committee on Taxation. Their paper has this month been accepted for publication in a top peer-reviewed academic journal.