Category Archives: wealth

What is shared prosperity, and how do we know if it’s on the rise?

Published on Oxfam America’s Politics of Poverty blog

What is shared prosperity, and how do we know if it’s on the rise?

This blog post is an adaptation of Nick’s recent article in Global Policy.

The World Bank has chosen an indicator of shared prosperity that’s inadequate, and gives a distorted picture of progress. According to the Bank’s indicator, countries where the poorest forty percent are faring better than the country average are considered to be experiencing shared prosperity. Yet, comparing the poorest to the average masks whether income and wealth are concentrating among the very rich at the top. Given what we know about the dangers of extreme inequality, the Bank’s indicator is not only misleading, but irresponsible. Continue reading →

Extreme Inequality and Oligarchy

Published on Oxfam America’s Politics of Poverty blog 

Is the U.S. an oligarchy?

I want to throw out an interesting concept, and discuss how it relates to extreme inequality: Oligarchy. According to Jeffrey Winters, author of this fascinating book that I am reading,  oligarchy refers to the politics of wealth defense by a minority who possess incredibly large fortunes. Oligarchs are actors controlling massive concentrations of material power they can use to defend or enhance their personal wealth. Oligarchs may pursue other political ends, but defending their wealth is their fundamental existential interest.

Continue reading →

Is the world a ‘plutonomy?’

Published on Oxfam America’s Politics of Poverty blog

Who dominates the global economy – and why that matters for you and me!

I recently saw the word ‘plutonomy’ in the title of an international relations academic article. It’s an intriguing and unfamiliar word, and its definition is causing me to ask some probing questions about our global economic order.

For those uninitiated like me, plutonomy describes an economy where the share of consumption and economic activity by the rich dwarfs everyone else. It’s a system where a small minority control most of the wealth and income, and consume nearly all the goods and services. Some might argue that the U.S., the UK and Canada approximate plutonomies. Continue reading →

Eight Ways To Reduce Global Inequality

Published at Inequality.org

Co-authored with Dr. Marjorie Wood

Extreme economic inequality is corrosive to our societies. It makes poverty reduction harder, hurts our economies, and drives conflict and violence. Reversing this trend presents a significant challenge, but one where we’ve seen some progress. Below we offer eight ways to move the world forward in reducing global inequality.

1. Stop Illicit Outflows Continue reading →

Don’t miss the big picture: Oxfam highlights inequality because #WealthIsPower

Published on Oxfam Great Britain’s Mind the Gap blog

Don’t let the technical debate overshadow Oxfam’s real message.

Some critics of our work have asked why we looked at wealth, especially given the difficulties of measuring how it is distributed globally. Also, some charge that by only looking at wealth inequality, we’re missing the great reduction of extreme poverty that has taken place over the past couple decades as wages among the world’s poorest have risen, particularly in China and India.

Continue reading →

Guess what critics? Oxfam is right about the top 1%

Published on Oxfam America’s Politics of Poverty blog

Even without the bottom decile, they own half of global wealth.

Ricardo Fuentes-Nieva and I shocked the world last year with our calculation that therichest 85 people held the same amount of wealth as the poorest half of humanity. We also determined, using Credit Suisse’s data, that the richest one percent owned more than 45 percent of all global wealth.

Continue reading →

The myth of inequality myths

Published on Oxfam America’s Politics of Poverty blog

Serious critics of inequality are not using the arguments that “The Right” would have you think.

Apparently those warning that inequality is both out of control and corrosive to our society have been championing erroneous notions. Michael Tanner of the Cato Institute points out these myths in a blog he wrote last week entitled, “Inequality Myths.” Continue reading →

Why did Oxfam target the billionaires at Davos?

Published on Oxfam America’s Politics of Poverty blog

It’s time they pay their taxes, stop using wealth to influence politics.

Whew! What a week for Oxfam!

On Monday, we released a new report on global inequality, “Working For the Few: Political Capture and Economic Inequality,”  targeted at the participants attending the World Economic Forum in Davos this week. These folks represent the global economic elite – the real movers and shakers of the world economy who heavily influence economic policymaking.

The media response has been overwhelming. Here’s a sample: Continue reading →