Bonus culture is killing opportunity

Social mobility in the US and the UK has been declining and inequality rising for decades. It is toxic to the economy, and it is a direct result of the bonus culture that has taken over our corporate worlds.

Back in 2004, the Economist published a special report on meritocracy in America. The US has long been considered to be one of the most meritocratic places on earth: most Americans are convinced that hard work and alittle talent can get them anywhere.

The Economist noted that, these days, they are mostly wrong. Even back then, income inequality was rising fast. Between 1979 and 2000, the real income of those in the bottom fifth of US earners rose 6.4% in real terms (pathetic isn't it?) while that of those in the top fifth rose by 70%.

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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.