Fixing inequality is a tricky business

The gap between rich and poor is a growing problem. But fixing inequality isn't as simple as just squeezing the rich till they squeak, says Merryn Somerset Webb.

Ray Dalio

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(Image credit: © 2018 Bloomberg Finance LP)

The growing wealth gap in the US is, says billionaire investor Ray Dalio in the Financial Times, a national emergency. If we don't do something about it, he says, "we are all going to try and kill each other". In general, I think it is better for multibillionaires to refrain from 1) criticising the system that made them multibillionaires, and 2) suggesting ways for other people to have fewer chances of becoming multibillionaires than they had.

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Merryn Somerset Webb

Merryn Somerset Webb started her career in Tokyo at public broadcaster NHK before becoming a Japanese equity broker at what was then Warburgs. She went on to work at SBC and UBS without moving from her desk in Kamiyacho (it was the age of mergers).

After five years in Japan she returned to work in the UK at Paribas. This soon became BNP Paribas. Again, no desk move was required. On leaving the City, Merryn helped The Week magazine with its City pages before becoming the launch editor of MoneyWeek in 2000 and taking on columns first in the Sunday Times and then in 2009 in the Financial Times

Twenty years on, MoneyWeek is the best-selling financial magazine in the UK. Merryn was its Editor in Chief until 2022. She is now a senior columnist at Bloomberg and host of the Merryn Talks Money podcast -  but still writes for Moneyweek monthly. 

Merryn is also is a non executive director of two investment trusts – BlackRock Throgmorton, and the Murray Income Investment Trust.