"It is 2015. George Clooney is US President. Angelina Jolie is Vice President. Bob Geldof and Bono, respectively, Irish President and Prime Minister. China has just overtaken the US as the world's largest economy. India is not so far behind. Some of the UN poverty targets - the Millennium...

The majority of the world's poor, by income poverty and multi-dimensional poverty, now live in countries officially classified by the World Bank as middle-income countries. Of course nothing happens when a country crosses a (somewhat) arbitrary threshold in per capita income but it does matter...