Inequality


The super rich elite have more money than they know what to do with (MarketWatch)

Worldwide inequality has risen in nearly every region since 1980, study says (CNBC)

Key Points

  • The World Inequality Report found since 1980, the top 0.1 percent of wealth owners, about 7 million people, captured as much of the world’s growth as the bottom half of the adult population — around 3.8 billion people
  • A global perception that the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poor has triggered calls for a crackdown on offshore tax havens and moved the issue of inequality up the political agenda
  • The report also estimated about 10 percent of the world’s wealth was currently held in tax havens

‘Extreme levels’ of inequality set to worsen

The report found inequality had skyrocketed to “extreme levels” despite many countries sharing similar levels of development. This was evidence of the “important roles national policies and institutions play in shaping inequality.”

The economists said wealth inequality had become “extreme” in the U.S. and Russia. Over the last four decades, the U.S.’s richest 1 percent accounted for 39 percent of the nation’s wealth, according to data published in 2014 — the most recent available.


Unpaid and underpaid care work and the global inequality crisis