Distribution of wealth

A reader asked me not to write about ?useless topics? such as summer book recommendations, the relationship between democracy and growth and the economics of weed or love- and ?show him the money? instead. As your friendly neighborhood economist, I am happy to oblige.

The number of people worth $1 million or more rose by 920,000 last year, hitting a record 14.6 million. It was the sixth straight year-on-year increase as rising stock prices lifted the value of personal wealth in a few key countries, according to a report from consultant Capgemini and RBC Wealth Management.

By Nikos Konstandaras

Income inequality has reached record highs in most OECD countries and remains at even higher levels in many emerging economies, said the organization in a new report. The richest 10 per cent of the population in the OECD now earn 9.6 times the income of the poorest 10 per cent, up from 7:1 in the 1980s and 9:1 in the 2000s, according to the OECD report. 

From 2008, before Greece signed a bailout deal with its creditors setting out a raft of cost-cutting measures, until 2012, the tax burden on lower-income Greek households skyrocketed by 337.7 percent compared to just 9 percent for high-income groups, a recent study by Athens-based professors Tassos Giannitsis and Stavros Zografakis found.

The pressure resulting from rising consumer prices has increased significantly on Turkey's lowest income group over the last six years, causing the gap between the country's rich and poor to reach record highs, according to an economy note issued by Bahçe?ehir University's Center for Economic and Social Research (BETAM) on March 2.

Wealth accumulated by the richest one percent will exceed that of the other 99 percent in 2016, the Oxfam charity said Jan. 19, ahead of the annual meeting of the world's most powerful at Davos, Switzerland.
      

 Acclaimed French economist warns of risks if eurozone countries do not demonstrate that they want to stay together

By Xenia Kounalaki

The gap between the rich and poor in a range of countries has reached its widest in 30 years and the trend has harmed growth, the OECD said Dec. 9.

The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) said in a new report that most of its 34 member countries had seen a growing widening in the inequality gap.

Wealth inequality is particularly worrying for countries like Brazil, China or Turkey, which are home to more billionaires than Japan, says famous French economist Thomas Piketty Wealth inequality, capital flight, tax evasion and a lack of financial transparency are issues that are particularly worrying for countries like Turkey, Brazil and China, according to economist and author Thomas Piket