There are signs of a pushback among the wealthy, conservative elites and the business community that may see the political pendulum begin to swing back toward the middle.

 

No one particular event seems to have created this moment. The government shutdown is one, the impending Republican loss in the Virginia governor’s race is another, and so is the dawning recognition that the right-wing war on the poor and glorification of profits and wealth may have gone too far.

 

One sign is the widely discussed essay published on Nov. 1 by the managing director of Pimco, William H. Gross, on “Scrooge McDucks.” ...

 

Mr. Gross, ranked 252nd on the Forbes 400 list of wealthiest Americans, said in his essay that having become wealthy in part because of the tax cuts carried out by Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush, as well as the low interest rate policies of the Federal Reserve that facilitated leveraged borrowing, he had become concerned about the plight of labor. That is, the declining share of national income going to workers and the rising share going to capital, which is a growing topic of concern among economists.