The story of the great divergence between Europe and Asia is the great drama of the nineteenth-century world economy. This is the period when the world fell into the hands of the North Atlantic powers, first Britain and the other European empires, and then in the twentieth century the United States, especially after World War II. Only with the rapi

inequality leads to the richest in society “capturing” government to further their own interests, meaning fewer opportunities for others. Rising inequality leads to stagnation and decline which not even the democratizing power of technology can cancel out.