Charting change

摘要

A number of trends that have been simmering for years will come to a full boil in 2016-and result in some striking statistics. One example is in economic inequality. The share of wealth of the richest 1% of the world's population will, according to Oxfam, exceed that of the remaining 99% of people (chart 1). Yet there is also some good news for ordinary folk: in at least one respect private investing is becoming more democratic. The amount of global crowdfunding investment is expected to reach $34 billion in 2015, and in 2016 will surpass the annual money committed by investors to venture-capital funds globally (chart 2).