Gobalization’s doubters right about its destructive economic and social consequences

When a 40-year-old economics professor at Harvard University named Dani Rodrik was preparing to publish his first book in 1997, he sent the manuscript to a fellow economist to ask for an endorsement. 

The title of Rodrik’s book was Has Globalization Gone Too Far?, and it argued that without government policies to mitigate the downside of free trade, the result would be deep and corrosive social divisions.

 “he said I was giving ammunition to the barbarians.”

The “barbarians” were men like Pat Buchanan on the right and Richard Gephardt on the left

We believed that globalization created so much prosperity around the world that the loss of jobs in places like Flint, Michigan, and High Point, North Carolina, was a small price to pay.

77 million people voted for the man who has said that “tariff is the most beautiful word in the dictionary.”

Which leads to the obvious question: What did those of us who believed in neoliberalism and globalization miss? 

To put it another way, what did the handful of skeptics like Rodrik see that the rest of us didn’t?

Perhaps the biggest name today among the skeptics is Michael Pettis

In 2014, Pettis made this argument with a book entitled The Great Rebalancing: Trade, Conflict, and the Perilous Road Ahead for the World Economy. 

It was received respectfully, but it didn’t change many minds.

 Joe Nocera The Free Press 6 maj 2025

https://www.thefp.com/p/the-intellectual-godfathers-of-protectionism

Neoliberalism, the Washington Consensus, market fundamentalism – call it whatever you want – has been replaced with something very different

Dani Rodrik Project Syndicate 10 September 2021

https://englundmacro.blogspot.com/2021/09/neoliberalism-washington-consensus.html

Per Lindvalls lysande artkel i Fokus om US dollar

https://englundmacro.blogspot.com/2025/01/per-lindvalls-lysande-artkel-i-fokus-om.html