It seems the Incredibly Incurious Journalist Jonathan Chait has decided to double down. Picking up the story from where we make our appearance in Jonathan's cloistered world:

Likewise, the blog Political Calculations — whose work Pethokoukis has cited as refuting the “myth” of income inequality — is unhappy as well. My post pointed out that its supposed refutation of rising inequality is erroneous, because it relies on census data. The Census Department does not collect detailed information about rich people’s income, which is why inequality researchers look elsewhere when they want to study changing income among the very rich. Lane Kenworthy, an actual expert in this topic, helpfully explained the folly of the Political Calculations chart. I thought his explanation was too detailed to be of interest to readers here, but since they’re complaining, I’ll reprint a longer excerpt of his e-mail to me:

You know, it *still* hasn't occurred to the Incredibly Incurious Journalist Jonathan Chait that perhaps, just perhaps, questions about our work should be directed to us, as he has *still* made no apparent effort to contact us with any such questions! (We've even checked our e-mail spam filter!)

Although he isn't doing anything more than regurgitating the contents of an e-mail he received from an individual he has proclaimed to be an "actual expert", let's see what we can learn from it. Better yet, let's also see if we can do what appears to be beyond Jonathan Chait: ask questions about the information he is accepting at face value! From the e-mail of Chait's "actual expert" Lane Kenworthy: