The Head of the IMF Says Inequality Threatens Democracy. Here Are 7 Charts Proving She's Right.

[G_j]

http://m.motherjones.com/mojo/2014/05/imf-christine-lagarde-income-inequality

The Head of the IMF Says Inequality Threatens Democracy. Here Are 7 Charts Proving She's Right.
—Erika Eichelberger on Wed. May 28, 2014 10:59 AM PDT

In his State of the Union address in January, President Barack Obama promised to devote 2014 to tackling inequality. When French economist Thomas Piketty's book Capital in the Twenty-First Century was released in March, it pushed the problem of growing income disparity further into the global spotlight. In April, Pope Francis tweeted, "Inequality is the root of social evil." Now Christine LaGarde, the head of the International Monetary Fund—best known for lending money to developing countries on the condition that the those states make policy changes—is taking on inequality too, warning in a speech Tuesday that rising inequality is threatening global financial stability, democracy, and human rights.

"One of the leading economic stories of our time is rising income inequality, and the dark shadow it casts across the global economy," LaGarde said.

The richest 10 percent of people in the world hold 86 percent of the world's wealth, and just 0.7 percent own 41 percent of global riches, according to the Credit Suisse 2013 Global Wealth Report. The bottom half of all adults in the world own just one percent of global wealth:



Here's what the very top of that pyramid looks like. About 10,000 people have more than $50 million:



..more..

[pampango]

1. "Inequality is the root of social evil." Nice to hear her say it. I doubt any IMF head has before.

But it will be of little help to any one unless her words are reflected in future IMF policy.