, Columnist
Dashed Expectations Power White Anger
People who count on a bright future tend to be the most dissatisfied when things go wrong.
Stay calm.
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A while ago, I wrote about a new theory that’s gaining some ground in economics and finance. This is the theory of extrapolative expectations, which says that people tend to mistakenly think that recent trends are going to keep going. That theory could help explain financial bubbles. But I also believe it can help explain a lot of the anger we’re now seeing in the political world -- especially the rage that led to the rise of Donald Trump.
During the 2016 election, people often debated whether Trump’s supporters were motivated by economic anxiety. Plenty of evidence showed that Trump voters weren’t doing worse, economically speaking, than those who voted for Hillary Clinton. But that might not be the whole story.