Thank you for your question.
Very interesting. Yes, I have a very different perspective on the experience in the 1990s and its contribution to income inequality. At the onset of the 1990s, we were recovering from a recession. We had very high interest rates as we wrung inflation out of the economy. That had good outcomes and bad. Globally, however...in other countries, as well as in Canada, the 1990s were, in the early part, a very slow growth period. It picked up after, and there were shifts in the composition of the population and wages of the sort that Craig described. These processes are likely to increase inequality. So there were a lot of different factors contributing to that shift in inequality at that time.
Whether it's persistent, though, remains to be seen. If you look at Canada's history of income equality or asset equality since World War II, it has been very flat, very steady. Inequality rose somewhat in the 1990s, and in recent years it has started to drop off in relative terms. There are many ways to look at this.
Globally, if we compare across countries or look at OECD countries, we see that income inequality has gone up a little, but it makes more sense to me not to compare countries but to compare people who live in those countries. When you compare individuals across countries, you'll find that the globalization processes we've talked about have raised incomes for many. In fact, in the developed world it has lifted billions out of low income, and that matters too.