The big news last week was the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. It’s always a tricky event on the calendar for development leaders, as summarized excellently by my colleague Elissa Miolene. It’s a gathering of the elite — billionaires, CEOs, and heads of state.
Nominally, it’s focused on finding solutions to the world’s big problems, but it’s an awkward discussion, given that there are plenty of people who think extreme wealth — as personified by those on the mountain — is actually the root of the problem.
This year, for example, Oxfam greeted Davos with a new report showing that wealth inequality has grown vastly since the 1970s, and continues to grow at extraordinary rates.