Since the 1980s, the world has been undergoing a particular type of globalization, one that has been very good for some people, and not so good for others. Branko Milanovic’s book Global Inequality, which came out earlier this year, showed who won and lost under this system in the last 30 years. By doing so, he pinpointed, many believe, a source of discontent that has increasingly shaped our political climate, from the UK’s move to leave the EU to the outcome of the United States presidential election.

The biggest gains, he found, have gone to the very richest in the richest countries—the kinds of people that are overwhelmingly found in places like London or US coastal cities—as well as the “emerging global middle class,” people with much less wealth who are predominantly located in China. Both of these groups saw their real incomes skyrocket from their previous levels, though Chinese people on overage are still only one fourth as wealthy as Americans. The world’s poorest people didn’t do nearly as well, but they saw some improvements.

And the losers have been working people in rich countries. A large portion of the lower middle class in Western Europe and the US saw essentially no income gains since the Reagan administration, while almost everybody else in the world, including elites in their own countries, moved forward. Milanovic presented his data for these findings in the now famous “Elephant chart.” The graph, which looks like the outline of an elephant, shows how much incomes have increased for people at different levels of wealth. The dip between the elephant’s back and its trunk shows the comparatively small gains that working people in rich countries have seen.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Let’s start with the obvious question. Does the elephant graph explain Brexit and Trump?

