Meritocracy and social mobility have long been hailed as the foundations of a well-functioning society. But economic pressures have exposed the failures of existing structures, where so-called ‘elites’ remain in charge while an increasingly dissatisfied and often struggling wider population is left to bear the consequences of their decisions, according to Raghuram Rajan, the former central bank governor of India, who is currently a professor of finance at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. People “don’t see the mobility they used to think existed before”, he says.
Central banks are exposed to the anti-elite wave too. “I think that, unfortunately, central banks are very much, squarely, part of the elite – as am I and I’m sure you are [at The Banker]. We’re all part of this group,” adds Mr Rajan.
