The coming of the second Gilded Age is a panel about inequality. Chuck Collins, from Institute for Policy Studies and United for a Fair Economy, said that "the data [of inequality] is no longer in dispute." He referenced the infamous Richistan, fantastic satire of the fact that the upper class doesn't even fell the tremors of a collapsing economy. His prescriptive agenda is that 1) we need to talk about the inequality and constantly push it forth in the public discussion and 2) return to an era of progressive taxation and public investment.

Barbara Ehrenreich, author of Nickel and Dimed, promised she wouldn't use words like "unfair" or "obscene." I'd never seen her before in person, but she's hilarious. Instead, she said, she would find the objective "problems" with the poor. One of the biggest problems, she said, is that this lowest class of people has depressed consumption -- they're not doing their American duty to shop! "The poor isn't holding up it's own," she said to a room full of laughter. The credit crisis was caused, in essence, by poor people. The lower class of people in this country "is actually a tripwire." So then she flipped this paradigm of the poor being a burden on society on its head. She talked about how the superrich squeeze us as consumers and spenders. She also says the ultrarich are "hogging all the good scenery in America." It turns out the rich are a burden on society. "When you have some people that can barely afford to buy groceries and you have other people that can buy congressman," she said eloquently, "You're not talking about democracy anymore, you're talking about plutocracy."

William Gates Sr. spent a lot of time over the last couple years campaigning against the repeal of the estate tax. He targets this as the real source of inequality in America and the biggest winnable political battle on inequality.

In the Q&A portion, Ehrenreich wisely debunks the "American dream." She noted that everyone wants to believe that they will graduate from college with a $60,000 starting salary, but the reality is that they will spend many years of working as a barista followed by a series of layoffs.