Tackling cross-country inequality is the key to global stability | Kenneth Rogoff

The advanced economies and China are rebounding from the Covid crisis, but there is a dangerous global divergence

What is remarkable about the increase in nationalist sentiment across the developed world in recent years is that it is occurring at a time when many of today's most pressing challenges, including the climate emergency and the Covid-19 pandemic, are fundamentally global problems demanding global solutions. And the anger brewing among citizens of vaccine-poor countries - basically, the two-thirds of humanity living outside the advanced economies and China - could come back to haunt the rich world all too soon.

Joe Biden's ambitious plans to address inequality in America are to be welcomed, provided the administration succeeds in covering the long-run costs through higher taxes or stronger growth, admittedly two big ifs. So, too, is the smaller but still significant Next Generation EU scheme to help EU members such as Italy and Spain that have been disproportionately affected by the pandemic.

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