The rich get richer and the poor get poorer, it often appears.
And it's often hard to believe that it happens by accident. Not an accident at all, says John Perkins, who once used his economic training to advise the likes of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.
He calls himself in those days an "economic hit man," and wrote a book about the activities of himself and his colleagues.
He's now added chapters to update The New Confessions of An Economic Hit Man. And he visits the Exchange to let us in on the secrets of his earlier life.