Is the United States less a democracy than a plutocracy now, governed by the wealthy elite? Have we become a nation, by the rich and for the rich? Or do capital gains fuel economic growth, creating jobs and bolstering business, increasing social mobility for all? In this hour of Midday, a hard look at the income inequality that has drawn public denunciations from Pope Francis and President Obama, and which stands at the center of arguments that the U.S. has been transformed into a plutocracy. Historian Ronald Formisano argues that point in the hour head, and we’ll hear a challenge to Formisano’s view from Thaya Brook Knight, a financial regulation expert with the libertarian CATO Institute.