Experts for global panel to tackle ‘inequality crisis’

CAPE TOWN: Wealth inequality is a global emergency that threatens democracy and social cohesion, experts warned Tuesday, urging G20 leaders meeting in South Africa this month to establish a panel to tackle the crisis.

The “inequality emergency” is leaving billions hungry and could worsen under the Trump administration’s “law of the jungle” approach to trade, a committee led by Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz said in a new report.

The proposed panel on inequality was inspired by the UN’s expert Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which analyses the risks of global warming and proposes solutions. “Inequality is a choice. It is something we can do something about,” Stiglitz said at a briefing where he handed the report to President Cyril Ramaphosa. Representing 85 percent of global GDP, the Group of 20 (G20) leading economies is “very influential in setting the international rules of the game” that could tackle the problem, the professor said.