With the onset of the crisis in 2007, the decline accelerated as rising unemployment affected workers at the lower end of the income distribution, particularly younger and less-educated workers. The last time inequality in the United States was so severe was during the 1920s. In short, market forces have been a powerful mechanism for creating wealth and narrowing the income gaps between countries.
At the same time, however, globalization, combined with technological change, is concentrating wealth in fewer hands within many countries. Brazil and Canada Let me turn now to Brazil and Canada. The economic record of our countries in recent years provides an important counter-example to those questioning capitalism. In the face of the global crisis, neither country was obliged to bail out its banks.