Events

Inequality is an increasing problem in the Western world, leaving everyone – the rich as well as the poor – worse off. The dream of a socially mobile society is becoming an ever more unachievable myth.

Stiglitz will argue that inequality is not inevitable but a choice – the cumulative result of unjust policies and misguided priorities.  he will expose the neoliberal policies, such as deregulation and tax cuts for the rich, which he claims are causing many people to fall further and further behind. He will propose real solutions: increasing taxes on corporations and the wealthy; helping homeowners instead of banks; investing in education, science, and infrastructure; and, most importantly, doing more to restore full employment.

In conjunction with Intelligence Squared we bring you a debate on the work of Thomas Piketty. Thomas’s book Capital in the 21st Century was the surprise publishing sensation of 2014 and the recent winner of the 2014 Financial Times and McKinsey Business Book of the Year . An analysis of the causes and growth of inequality, it has sold nearly half a million copies worldwide to date. It was described by many reviewers as the economic book not just of the year, but of recent decades.

How is that a young, largely unknown French economist stirred up such a massive worldwide debate on inequality, a topic that Nobel Prize-winning economists such as Joseph Stiglitz and Paul Krugman have been writing about for most of their careers? The answer lies in Piketty’s main argument, backed up by his extensive research, which states that capital – whether invested in the stock market or property – will always grow faster than income. As a result, he argues, people who are already rich will carry on getting richer, while those who depend on income will never catch up. Piketty’s solution? A global redistribution of wealth that would give poorer earners some capital to invest.

Ten years ago, New York Times columnist and three-time Pulizer Prize winner Thomas L. Friedman shone a light on how the world was ‘flattening’; how the convergence of world events and new technologies had opened up the global supply chain to previously excluded economies. His book The World is Flat captured a pivotal moment in the 21^st Century, examining the trends, opportunities and challenges this ‘next new world’ presented to countries, companies and individuals.

Ten years on, the writer will offer new insights into the effects of technological change, globalisation, economic crisis and political turmoil, in a lecture that promises to be thought-provoking and challenging.