1 week ago The Guardian view on the inequality emergency: why a Nobel prize winner’s warning must be heeded | Editorial

Rising economic division is destabilising nations and eroding accountability. Joseph Stiglitz’s G20 blueprint offers a way toward global economic renewalWhen Swiss tycoons handed Donald Trump a gold bar and a Rolex watch – gifts that were followed by a cut in US tariffs – it was no diplomatic nicety. It was a reminder of how concentrated wealth seems to buy access and bend policy. It may, alarmingly, become the norm if the global “inequality emergency” continues. That’s the message of the most recent work by the Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz. The economist sees the yawning gap between rich and poor as a human-made crisis which is destroying politics, society and the planet. He’s not wrong.The problem is no longer confined to a few fragile states. It is a global harm, with 90% of the world’s population living under the World Bank’s definition of “high income inequality”. The US sits just below that threshold and is the most unequal country in the G7, followed by the UK. Prof Stiglit...

Events

2 w. ago Swiss politicians decry ‘gold bar diplomacy’ in Trump trade deal

Backlash over role played in talks by executives from companies including Rolex and Richemont

Politics

2 w. ago Swiss gold and Rolex gifts to Trump raise questions over personalisation of US presidential power

Italian MEP ‘disgusted’ after US president received $130,000 engraved gold bar weeks before he decided to slash tariffs on Swiss importsA gold Rolex desk clock and a $130,000 engraved gold bar given to Donald Trump by a group of Swiss billionaires have raised questions in Europe and the US about the personalisation of US presidential power.Pasquale Tridico, an Italian MEP and the former head of the country’s national institute for social security said he was “disgusted” by the golden charm offensive, made weeks before Trump decided to slash 39% tariffs on Swiss imports to 15%. Continue reading...

Politics

2 w. ago Swiss gold and Rolex gifts to Trump arouse ‘disgust’ in Europe

Billionaires gave desk clock and engraved gold bar weeks before Trump slashed tariffs on imports from SwitzerlandA gold Rolex desk clock and a $130,000 engraved gold bar given to Donald Trump by a group of Swiss billionaires have raised questions in Europe and the US about the personalisation of US presidential power.Pasquale Tridico, an Italian MEP and the former head of the country’s national institute for social security said he was “disgusted” by the golden charm offensive, made weeks before Trump decided to slash 39% tariffs on Swiss imports to 15%. Continue reading...

Politics

3 w. ago The man who buried himself alive for 61 days: Irish labourer hoped to make a fortune by breaking world record... but never made a penny

In 1968, penniless, but determined, Mick Meaney vowed to become the greatest 'burial artist' on the planet by staying entombed underground longer than anyone else.

Politics

3 w. ago Man who was praised for his honesty after he found gold bar fortune buried in his garden will likely get nothing

The as-yet-unidentified man dug up the haul, which was wrapped in plastic, and reported it to his local authority, as was his legal obligation.

Politics