Eswar Prasad

You know, this is not a book about the U.S.

It's not a book about Trump.

It's not a book about the last year.

We see many of these forces play out around the world, and we've seen, you know, very negative reactions in many countries.

In a country like Poland, you saw a huge shift to the right.

But then the equilibrating mechanism sort of worked and it's back at the center.

Other countries, the dynamics are playing out such that it is shifting even more to the right.

And that may be where we end up, where we end up, you know, with a political system that is hugely polarized and where even the center starts shifting even more to the right in terms of issues like immigration, in terms of issues related to globalization and so forth.

And that could mean

Perhaps a little less inequality, but much less welfare for people as a whole.

Inequality by itself is not necessarily a bad thing.

In fact, if we didn't have inequality, it would mean that we are affecting the working of the labor market where better skilled, you know, more entrepreneurial people should be making higher returns.

We do want to have incentives in an economy

for those who take enormous risks in setting up companies, who come up with great inventions, do get compensated fairly.

And we can argue about what the right level of compensation is.

I do worry in America, though, whether we are in fact taking care of the bottom 15 or 20%.

Median incomes are doing fine.

But if you look at the...

safety net cushions that are available for those at the bottom, it's completely inadequate.

You know, when I think about the healthcare system in this country, for instance, I suspect my dog is probably getting, you know, much better healthcare than a large number of people in this country can afford.