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This paper aims at discussing the links existing between the increasing income inequality on the global scale and the processes of financialization, with particular reference to the increase of public debt. This issue will be dealt with in the theoretical framework of the so-called radical Institutionalism, emphasising the ethical dimension of economic behaviour. It will be argued that i) the increase of income inequality in most OECD countries is a major cause of the explosion of public debt, involving a redistribution of income at the benefit of rentiers; ii) the economic policies devoted to reducing public debt, via the reduction of public spending, increase income inequality and face a trade-off beteween the necessity to create the conditions for capitalist reproduction and the need to preserve social cohesion.