10 must-read economics stories of the week

Welcome to your weekly update – a curated list of some of this week’s most interesting stories on economic growth and social inclusion.

1. Facts and figures. There is a striking wealth inequality among the S&P 500 (measured by the dominance of large-cap stocks in the index). The Gini coefficient for the S&P 500 is about 60%, similar to Italy in wealth inequality terms. (FT Alphaville/Nick Dunbar)

2. What does 2016 hold for the global economy, asks Christine Lagarde? (World Economic Forum)

3. Raghuram Rajan outlines the underlying factors suppressing global growth and suggests a way forward toward sustainable growth. (Project Syndicate)

4. The New Yorker features a profile of the Ford Foundation and its quest to take on inequality, led by its tenth president, Darren Walker. (The New Yorker)

5. What are the top two risks that the IMF Chief Economist is looking out for in 2016? (The Wall Street Journal)

6. And yet, as Martin Wolf argues, global economic disaster is an unlikely event. (Financial Times)

7. What’s the link between technology and inequality and what does this imply for policy? The Chief Economist of the World Bank, Kaushik Basu, explains. (World Economic Forum)

8. Recent research by the Bank for International Settlements suggests that credit booms tend to undermine productivity growth. If correct, this undermines the notions of ‘secular stagnation’ and the ‘global savings glut’. (The Telegraph)

9. The World Bank’s January 2016 Global Economic Prospects was just released and suggests that global growth will recover more slowly than expected, while significant downside risks remain. (The World Bank)

10. In case you missed it. A nice overview to understand the debate on inequality, skills, and the rise of the 1%.(Harvard Business Review)

Author: Jennifer Blanke is Chief Economist at the World Economic Forum

Image: A worker stands on a structure at a construction site in Mexico City January 25, 2011. REUTERS/Jorge Dan