A richer, but more unequal world

This issue is emerging as one of the big, if not the biggest, economics story of our times. The world is vastly richer than in even the recent past, with many poor countries making good progress in catching up with the richer ones.Yet within almost all economies, income and wealth gaps are widening. Last year Oxfam were talking about a double decker bus, representing the world’s richest people, who own half the wealth. This year wealth is concentrated in even fewer hands.

Although parts of the rest of the world are catching up, the BBC and Guardian carry the Oxfam story about steeply rising wealth inequalities.

This is a huge topic. You can start by thinking what may be behind this problem. More time could go into analysing its effects.

The good news is that the BBC are launching a new series – A Richer World. The trailer says ‘the world is getting wealthier - we live longer, eat better, are better educated and fewer people live in extreme poverty. But with the gap between rich and poor feeling bigger than ever, the BBC is investigating the winners and losers of this richer world in 2015.

There’s a good video clip to introduce the series here, and a short trailer using the example of New York City to illustrate rising inequality within American society. The wonderful Hans Rosling also explains using snowballs.