The annual meeting of the World Economic Forum at Davos this year has attendance from business leaders and politicians all over the world. The focus of the meeting is to improve the state of the world. Is that goal too far to reach? Growing concerns of inequality increases.
Rising inequality has widened the trust gap between political leaders and their people as the 1% own as much as the 99%.
The "Trust Barometer" which is Edelman's annual survey shows a much wider gap this year. It is driven by inequality in income and its numbers are large in the United States, UK, France and India. Richard Edelman, who led the survey, explains that...
The consequence of this is populism - exemplified by Trump and Le Pen.
The anti-poverty charity Oxfam reported that global inequality has reached record numbers this year which is has not been seen ever.
To paint a better picture, 62 people can have the same amount of wealth as 3.5 billion people combined and the wealth continues to increase in the past five years.
The poor and rich are divided with the poor falling further behind the wealthy sector in the United States, Middle East and Europe. This will be a focus on this year's Davos meeting on January 20 to 23.
However, it's not as simple as being rich or poor. In the Middle East, it's a much more bigger picture that spilled over to Europe. There have been civilian and political instability in the Middle East which pushes refugees to Europe that caused financial rifts. In the U.S., political division is clear nearing the presidential elections.
To represent America, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden will be there at Davos as well as Secretary of State John Kerry.
On a related note, Leonardo Di Caprio and Kevin Spacey will also be attending the event, reports confirmed.
