The end of poverty?  One finance expert argues the world is
indeed getting richer  and that the path to prosperity is clear
By , Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor  John Edmunds
has seen the future  and it's wealthy.  This will be news to
many  certainly to all those antiglobalization protesters who
now force the world's economic leaders into retreat behind
concrete wherever they gather. And many people are used to
thinking of the developing world only in terms of dire, and
worsening, poverty.  But Dr. Edmunds, a professor at Babson
College in Wellesley, Mass., is adamant. "The economic problem
is now solved," he says. "For thousands of years, mankind
struggled to achieve freedom from poverty. The solution is now
here and is rapidly transforming everyone's economic
possibilities everywhere."  Recommended: Could you pass a US
citizenship test?  It may be true that global wealth creation
continues apace. But some warn that the rich are getting richer,
and the poor poorer, at rates that surprise e