The world is drifting toward another Great Depression, says Kristalina Georgieva, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund.
She points to IMF research that finds parallels between current economic conditions, including economic inequality and financial markets’ instability, and those of the 1920s that culminated in the stock market collapse and a 10-year global depression that was ended only by World War II.
While inequality between countries has narrowed, inequality within countries has worsened, Georgieva went on to note in a speech at the Peterson Institute of International Economics.
In the UK, the richest 10 percent of the population controls as much wealth as the bottom 50 percent; in the U.S., Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, and Warren Buffet control as much wealth as the bottom 50 percent.
Although the U.S. median income rose to a record $61,937 in 2018, income inequality has also reached record levels, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
Such inequality not only hinders economic growth but also sparks “populism and political upheaval,” Georgieva said.
Growing political instability, even in developed countries, coupled with issues such as trade protectionism and climate disruption, will heighten global financial uncertainty, she predicted.
PUBLISHER’S NOTE: Once again, the establishment systems, be they geopolitical or socio-economic see the future coming but are behind the trend. While Ms. Georgieva in her forecast for another Great Depression, what she does not recognize are the crucial elements that differentiate this century from the last that will make it the “Greatest Depression,” which Gerald Celente is forecasting for 2021.
Among them are the concentration of wealth, which is greater today than it was during the 1930’s Great Depression, and the addition of some 5.5 billion people in just 90 years, who will be suffering from the economic collapse.
