As the 1980s drew to a close, the end of the Cold War ushered in an era of open markets, free trade and economic liberalisation. It came at the right time: data from the World Bank showed that in 1990, 35.8% of the world’s population was living in extreme poverty. By 2015, that number had fallen to just 9.9%.
While this represents nothing short of an economic miracle, the headline figures hide an uncomfortable fact: global inequality and in-country income inequality have been rising steadily for decades.
