Martin Wolf in conversation with Ann Bernstein
- Martin Wolf, chief economics commentator at the Financial Times, spoke to CDE’s executive director Ann Bernstein about democracy, business, markets, and development.
- Wolf argues that for capitalism to work people have to feel that they and their children have opportunities to get ahead, and they need security and a reasonable chance of a good job.
- In rich, western countries, Wolf points out, a series of powerful economic changes have ensured that their income distribution and economies have become more like those of Latin America, and as a result, their politics has increasingly become a competition between populists of the left and populists of the right.
- Wolf made it clear that developing countries face different kinds of challenges. If development is to succeed, he explained, you need social cohesion and governments that provide essential public goods, and they need to be regarded as legitimate.