The new reality

Global trade has outgrown the global economy for many decades.

The anti-globalisation backlash after Brexit and Trump may finally change that. Globalisation and trade came as an unprecedented global prosperity programme and allowed for massive economic growth and poverty eradication. But for too long we have overlooked the price of that growth. In industrialised economies, it came with massive pressures on the working class and a widening income inequality. In industrialising nations, it came with the soot and environmental costs that the West slowly learned to address during its post-war phase of high growth.

Much of this is not due to globalisation but due to the way our economy, our model of production and consumption work. Globalisation is only the amplifier of an industrial model that seemed fit for the twentieth century but not for the realities of today. Before we start fixing this deeper flaw, acceptance for globalisation is unlikely to rebound.