In response to an FT article by Larry Summers on 10th July 2016, entitled ‘Voters deserve responsive nationalism not reflex globalism’
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/15598db8-4456-11e6-9b66-0712b3873ae1.html#ixzz4E0pWaQV7
‘It is clear after the Brexit vote and Donald Trump’s victory in the Republican presidential primaries that voters are revolting against the relatively open economic policies that have been the norm in the US and Britain since the second world war… Agreements should be judged not by how many barriers are torn down but whether people are empowered’.
This article may be the sound of a penny dropping...I'll keep my fingers crossed it's a real penny.
Your next mission, Professor Summers, should you choose to accept it, is to persuade folks like Philip Stephens, Gideon Rachman and Martin Wolf that the backlash against the status quo that is manifesting globally, is more than the just the rise of xenophobia, anti-intellectualism and thuggery...and just might have something to do the fact that the 'globalist tit' that is supposed to provide milk and honey for all...provides most of its milk and honey to the 'globalist tits' who stand right next to it…and people have started to notice…
Whilst you are at it, have a chat with a fellow called James Traub will you please? I'm sure you know him - he written for the NYT Magazine and the New Yorker, and he’s a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. His latest article on foreignpolicy.com pushes back the boundary of 'missing the pointdom', to somewhere just past Jupiter, heading for Saturn. The article is called: 'It's time for the elites to rise up against the ignorant masses'...'It's not about left vs right, it's about sane vs mindlessly angry'. In his case it’s about the size of a pea, and I'm not referring to his personality.
So, not a bad start Professor, you may be too late, but at least you'll be on the right side of the narrative when future historians are asking themselves the question - 'how could the governments and elites of the second decade of the 21st century have been so utterly thick?'
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Note to my subscribers:
When Professor Summers talks about "relatively open economic policies that have been the norm in the US and Britain since the second world war" he imagines he is describing 'free trade'. He isn't - he's referencing something that would be better described as 'international corporatism' - as per the latest manifestation of this e.g. TTIP. But I chose to concentrate on the positive step he has apparently made in this article - towards 'owning the cronyism' that governments are in denial about. But...even if it is real, this is still a small step...and since he is a highly political animal...let's see...