We should increase aid budget

The International Monetary Fund and the World Bank hold their annual meetings this week, and one of the themes those powerful organisations will consider is shared prosperity — or to express the idea in another way, tackling growing inequality all around the world.

That those high consistories of capitalism should consider the issue at all is welcome, but as crisis after crisis has shown, good intentions can only achieve so much, direct intervention — usually very expensive — is required.

There are credibility issues too; how can an organisation like the IMF, one that routinely demands a reduction in living standards for baseline workers in countries that need its financial support, win the credibility needed to organise world-changing redistribution of wealth?