According to this report, a sixth of the world’s population, primarily in the developed world, received nearly 80 percent of world income while the poorest 57 percent of the world’s population received only 6 percent of world income. However, there has been some progress in fighting poverty.
Negotiations continue over the extent of spending cuts now due to take effect beginning in March, and I expect that discretionary fiscal policy will continue to be a headwind for the recovery for some time, instead of the tailwind it has been in the past. A second tailwind in most recoveries is housing. Residential investment creates jobs in construction and related industries.