Extreme wealth concentration is under the microscope as societies around the world grapple with the challenges of inequality, climate breakdown and democratic backsliding.
Yet wealth concentration continues to deepen, with some predictions that we will see the world’s first trillionaires within a decade. Is now the time to draw a line and ask: when does wealth become extreme wealth? And what risks does extreme wealth pose?
And even if we accept the moral intuition behind an “extreme wealth line”, where exactly would that line be set? Should we draw the line based on the social and environmental harms caused, or community expectations? Can we have just one line or do we need multiple lines depending on harms and contexts?
Our panel draws together leading thinkers and practitioners on the ideas to discuss the viability of an “extreme wealth line” and what it can contribute to addressing the pressing issues of our time.
Meet our speakers and chair
Fernanda Balata is a senior political economist at the New Economics Foundation and author of the 2025 report Exploring an Extreme Wealth Line. She leads NEF’s international programme on extreme wealth and economic justice in collaboration with a network of partners in the Global South and the Global North.
Olivier De Schutter was appointed the UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights by the Human Rights Council in March 2020. A Professor of Law at UCLouvain and at SciencesPo (Paris), Mr. De Schutter is also a member of the Global Law School Faculty at New York University. He holds a LL.M. from Harvard University, a diploma cum laude from the International Institute of Human Rights (Strasbourg) and a PhD in Law from UCLouvain.
Ingrid Robeyns was trained in economics and in philosophy. She received her PhD from Cambridge University, where she was supervised by Amartya Sen. Her work focusses on socio-economic questions in contemporary political philosophy and applied ethics. Robeyns holds the Chair in Ethics of Institutions at the Ethics Institute of Utrecht University.
Gary Stevenson left his trading career behind, convinced that solving inequality was the only way to repair the world economy. He has since studied for an MPhil at Oxford, worked with economic think-tanks and founded a YouTube channel, GarysEconomics, teaching people about real-world economics. He regularly appears on television and radio and has written for the Guardian and OpenDemocracy, among others. Gary is an alumnus of LSE.
Tania Burchardt is Associate Director of the Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion (CASE), Deputy Director of STICERD, and an Associate Professor in the Department of Social Policy at LSE.
More about this event
The International Inequalities Institute (@LSEInequalities) at LSE brings together experts from many of the School's departments and centres to lead cutting-edge research focused on understanding why inequalities are escalating in numerous arenas across the world, and to develop critical tools to address these challenges.
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