Is the rest of the world catching up with the leading countries? That depends. If you are talking about economic productivity, the answer is unclear. If you are talking about football results, that is another story.

Putting aside football for now (it will not be gone for long) let us focus instead on the living standards of everyone on the planet. “Convergence” — the idea that poor countries grow faster than rich ones — is an important idea.

In a very poor country, the return on a few simple investments should be very high. Adding a paved road between two towns makes a bigger difference than adding a new lane to a road that already exists. The same is true for power lines, railways and ports. So capital should flow to poorer countries and they should grow faster than rich countries.