The refugees crisis is inextricably linked to the polarised would economy
This last weekend Bernie Sanders the Democrat US Presidential candidate was reported as identify the gross inequality of wealth as critically damaging to the world economy. It is one of the key points that Adair Turner makes in his book Between Debt and the Devil. If wealth is in the hands of the few, they don't spend it and so it doesn't fuel the economy. It is dead money, especially when invested in vastly overprices real estate in London or indeed Athens.
Hidden wealth in Athens was one of the point highlighted by Simon Reeve in his thought provoking documentary on Greece. Amid the financial crisis and poverty it has created there is a well healed middle class busy not paying tax and living in hidden luxury.
This is the same Greece that is carrying the weight of the refugee crisis as it impacts on Europe.
The long term solution to this crisis is a vibrant North African and Middle Eastern economy where neither Bashar al-Assad nor ISIS can gain traction since the population would be too busy getting on with life.
This is simplistic, I know, but it is the right direction.
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