Are rich people psychopaths?
Some years back, I went to visit a friend of mine from college who was staying with a very rich author whilst completing an internship in London. He lived in a massive house in Battersea, a rich area next to the river Thames. Looking round…
Sweden the Country of Inequality; The Commitment to Reducing Inequality Index 2022
By Max Lawson One of the most unequal countries in Europe Imagine a country where up until the early 20th century, the number of votes you had depended on how rich you were. Where a member of the least wealthy group got one vote, but…
Is science a public service, and are scientists public servants?
By Max Lawson Sometimes Davos has a way of creating moments of great theatre; where the elites who run the world can be in some ways held to account, or at least called out. On a panel this week at Davos, my boss, Gabriela Bucher…
Profiting from Pain
By Max Lawson We are living through extraordinary times. Extraordinarily bad for the vast majority of humanity. Extraordinarily good if you are one of the richest people in the world. Normally they meet in January at Davos, but that face-to-face meeting was postponed, due to…
Hunger, Inequality and the Birth of Oxfam
By Max Lawson The other day I was speaking to Nellie, an old friend who is a primary school teacher in Malawi, about the rapidly rising prices: ‘Prices have risen, just since last month. Imagine a loaf of bread was 600kwacha, now it is 1000….
Golden Passports – Inequality and Refugees
By Max Lawson and Evelien van Roemburg Once again, daily our screens are filled with the heart-breaking scenes of many hundreds of thousands of people fleeing. At such moments, stories are told in the simplest way, and all distinctions are blurred; refugees become just that,…
What was the most iconic inequality moment in history?
By Max Lawson Dear Friends I hope this finds you well in these crazy times. Imagine you are an ambitious budding script writer in 2019. You have what you think is the perfect script for a new Netflix blockbuster: Scriptwriter:[nervous and excited] ‘Picture the scene. …
Making extreme wealth extinct
By Max Lawson In the week before the COP we released a report together with the Institute for European Environment Policy, (IEEP) with new figures on the carbon emissions of the world’s richest. The report was once again written by my brilliant former colleague at…
COVID-19 Impact on Inequality: What does the Latest Analysis Show Us?
By Max Lawson Coronavirus and inequality; what is the latest? Last year at the Annual Meetings of the World Bank and IMF there was a lot of talk about the impact of Coronavirus on inequality levels; in short a widespread agreement that the likelihood was…
The Revolutionary Threat of the Public Park
By Max Lawson Every day I take my dog, Marx, for a walk in our local park and around the sports fields behind it. Large lime trees, planted a century ago by far-sighed Victorians, tower above you forming a sort of natural cathedral in places….