What empty homes and hipster coffee shops tell us about globalization

Nov 20, 2018

A man walks past a closed and a November 21, 2009. Youngstown has 4,500 vacant structures in a city of about 75,000 people, and about 22,000 vacant parcels of land. REUTERS/Brian Snyder (UNITED STATES BUSINESS) - GM1E5BM11YL01

An abandoned business in Youngstown, Ohio, in 2009 Image: REUTERS/Brian Snyder

Peter Vanham

Previously, Deputy Head of Media at World Economic Forum. Executive Editor, Fortune

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Inequality

The world’s 80th to 90th percentile richest people - America’s and Europe’s middle class - gained almost nothing in the period between 1988 and 2008, the boom years of globalization. Image: Data: Lakner and Milanovic; drawing: Caroline Freund (Peterson Institute)

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