Introduction

Abstract

The series of crises since 2008 that have battered the global economy—Zincluding the surge in food and fuel prices, the havoc in the financial markets, and the subsequent global recession—gave rise to doomsday predictions of prolonged global stagnation. If the 1990s was “the age of abundance” and the 2000s (until these crises) was “the age of indulgence,” the decade of the 2010s is shaping up to be an “age of scarcity.” Not all, however, will be affected by this scarcity—not all countries and not all people; rather, it will affect most people in most countries, but a significant minority will continue to live in abundance. In other words, this is becoming a decade of extreme and growing inequality—between countries, and between people.