Did you know that governments in Europe are able to spend 40 times more per child on education than governments in Sub-Saharan Africa?
In this episode, world renowned economist Thomas Piketty breaks down the World Inequality Report 2026 and explains why today’s inequality is no longer a slow-moving crisis but an emergency.
He shows how the global financial system is designed to extract wealth from the Global South to the Global North, through debt, reserve currencies, and unequal power at institutions like the IMF and World Bank and how this must change.
He also explains why he is a strong supporter of the proposed International Panel on Inequality, and why he is optimistic that the long-term trend is towards more equal societies, but that this will not happen without campaigning and organisation.
This is part one of a three-episode series on economic inequality. The next two episodes will be released in January 2026.
Thomas Piketty is Professor of Economics and Economic History at EHESS and at the Paris School of Economics. He is also co-director of the World Inequality Lab and the World Inequality Database. He is the author of several books including Capital in the 21st century (2014), Capital and ideology (2020) among others.
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