, Columnist
The Left and Right Stumble on Globalization
We need new theories to account for new facts, since the old ones aren't holding up very well.
Which way does this thing spin?
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In a recent article, I presented solid evidence that the global economy has been doing very well for the world’s poor during the past 25 to 35 years. China’s growth has been stellar, India’s has been solid and many smaller poor countries got a boost from demand for natural resources. Now developing-world growth has dipped, thanks to the China slowdown and the resulting slump in commodity prices. But the gains the poor countries made are unlikely to be reversed. And those decades of stellar growth should teach us some big, important lessons about economic policy and ideology.
Basically, the events of 1980 through 2015 call into question some of the bedrock ideas of both the left and the right.