Wealth Inequality in the World

USA:  1% of the citizens owned 40% of the whole US Wealth

Infographics on the distribution of wealth in America, highlighting both the inequality and the difference between our perception of inequality and the actual numbers. The reality is often not what we think it is.

Global Wealth Inequality

Of the 1%, by the 1%, for the 1%

Several months before Occupy Wall Street, the Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz wrote, “Of the 1%, by the 1%, for the 1%,” an article for Vanity Fair. He returns to the subject in his new book looking at how inequality is now greater in the United States than any other industrialized nation. He notes, that the six heirs of the Wal-Mart fortune command wealth equivalent to the entire bottom 30 percent of American society. “It’s a comment both on how well off the top are and how poor the bottom are,” Stiglitz says. “It’s really emblematic of the divide that has gotten much worse in our society.” On Tuesday, Bloomberg News reported that pay for the top CEOs on Wall Street increased by more than 20 percent last year. Meanwhile, census data shows nearly one in two Americans, or 150 million people, have fallen into poverty or could be classified as low-income. “The United States is the country in the world with the highest level of inequality [of the advanced industrial countries] and it’s getting worse,” Stiglitz says. “What’s even more disturbing is we’ve [also] become the country with the least equality of opportunity.

OECD

The global economy is expected to make a hesitant and uneven recovery over the coming two years. Decisive policy action is needed to ensure that stalemate over fiscal policy in the United States and continuing euro area instability do not plunge the world back into recession, the OECD said in its latest Economic Outlook.

The gap between rich and poor in OECD countries has reached its highest level for over 30 years, and governments must act quickly to tackle inequality, according to a new OECD report, “Divided We Stand”.

The balance of economic power is expected to shift dramatically over the coming half century, with fast-growing emerging market economies accounting for an ever-increasing share of global output, according to new OECD research.

Narrowing Asia’s gap between rich and poor

China and Indonesia have agreed to increase minimum wages to help narrow the gap between rich and poor. The countries’ economies are among the fastest growing in the world but they are also witnessing growing social unrest. Millions remain in poverty and workers are increasingly taking to the streets, holding strikes and protests – pressing their demands for more money. We examine if raising wages in Indonesia and China could burden production cost and hurt the lowest paid.

Confronting Asia’s Rising Inequality

Although Asia’s impressive growth looks set to continue, new research from ADB’s Asian Development Outlook 2012 report shows that regional inequality is rising. Much of this inequality is within countries, creating a new rich-poor social and economic divide.

Poverty, Inequality and Inclusive Growth in Asia

Developing Asia’s stellar growth rates have masked rising inequality, leading to two faces of Asia – one shining and the other suffering – says ADB Assistant Chief Economist Juzhong Zhuang, editor of a new book on inequality and inclusive growth in Asia

The African Futures Project

Inequality and its consequences: The Economist debate

INCOME INEQUALITY HARMS SOCIETIES by Richard Wilkinson

We feel instinctively that societies with huge income gaps are somehow going wrong. Richard Wilkinson charts the hard data on economic inequality, and shows what gets worse when rich and poor are too far apart: real effects on health, lifespan, even such basic values as trust.

No GDP but GNH (Gross National Happiness) for Bhutan

The kingdom of Bhutan is placing environmental concerns and spiritual wellbeing over rampant capitalism.

ECONOMIC REALITY CHECK by Tim Jackson

As the world faces recession, climate change, inequity and more, Tim Jackson delivers a piercing challenge to established economic principles, explaining how we might stop feeding the crises and start investing in our future.