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In the true spirit of science, in which competing researchers test each other's hypotheses and experiments in search of a higher truth, Alan Reynolds -- author of Income and Wealth -- has been doing brilliant work in investigating the widely held hypothesis that income inequality has increased steadily over the last 20 years. Yes, that is just an hypothesis, though it is so widely believed and frequently quoted as to have the air of fact. What makes Reynolds' work so powerful is that he's patiently and systematically demolished the apparent experimental evidence behind that hypothesis, and dared to stand nearly alone against the conventional wisdom of economic science. When it comes to income inequality, Reynolds is a modern Galileo.

Liberal economist Mark Thoma has followed Reynolds' work over the last several months, and his website has become a forum for debating it. In a posting today, Thoma begins with a reprise of the key documents in the debate, which anyone interested in this subject ought to read in order.

• The Top 1% . . . of What? (Reynolds WSJ op-ed)
• Reynolds' Rap on Inequality
• Follow-Up on Inequality
• Poverty Rates in Recent Years
• Intellectual Garbage Collection: The Unreliability of Alan Reynolds (Brad DeLong)
• Settling the Score on Census Top-Coding of Income Data
• "The Chewbacca Defense"

Thoma then reproduces Reynolds' op-ed from the Washington Times in which he responds to all his critics. It's a brilliant and patient defense. Point by point he explains not only why his arguments are correct, but reveals the McCarthyesque nastiness of his critics' unwarranted and illegitimate accusations against him. At the end, Thoma -- who has done a public service by hosting this debate, but at the same time has clearly sided with the liberal attackers -- is reduced to what amounts to stunned silence. He has nothing to say after Reynolds' virtuosic defense but to splutter that the income inequality hypothesis is nevertheless beleved by many reputable economists. Which is about like saying, "Don't confuse me with the facts, Mr. Galileo. All of the finest minds say the universe revolves around the Earth."

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