Duncan Green, head of research for OXFAM UK, has some ideas on how to narrow inequality under the potential auspice of strong leadership in Latin America.
What Cepal fails to point out, perhaps unsurprisingly, is the politics of all this. Hugo Chavez‘ Venezuela as the fastest improver? A pile of centre-left governments (Evo Morales in Bolivia, Lula in Brazil and -ahem – Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua) following close behind? This is provocative stuff. Don’t get too excited, though. These improvements only get us back to the level of the early 1990s, (though that’s no small achievement in a world where inequality generally goes in the opposite direction). Moreover, a lot of these positive trends are now under threat from the impact of the global crisis, which is cutting regional growth to zero (from 5%), hitting employment and wage levels and reversing the trend towards formalization. Sigh.