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Outrage Over the Economy Doesn’t Explain Surging Global Populism

  • Not even 3.2% unemployment calms Wisconsin immigration fears
  • Greece’s anti-establishment push shows progress can be slow
Bloomberg business news

Columbia's O'Halloran: Populism About Local Interests

The year belonged to people like Bill Heinzelman, a retiree from Wisconsin, and Lucien Durand, a farmer in southeastern France.

They helped propel the populist wave that swept across the western world in 2016, blindsiding pollsters and investors with how strongly they felt the status quo in politics must go. The conventional wisdom among election observers and establishment politicians is that widespread anger at being left behind by globalization compelled Britons to forsake the European Union and Americans to vote for Donald Trump.