Must-Read: Martin Wolf: Conservatism Buries Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher

Must-Read: Martin Wolf: Conservatism Buries Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher: “Trump… has ended up with “pluto-populism”—policies that benefit plutocrats, justified by populist rhetoric… https://www.ft.com/content/970bbdcc-3f1e-11e7-82b6-896b95f30f58

…slash taxes on the rich, at the expense of the poor…. Confidence in the benefits of free markets, free trade and free movement of people has been lost… more tribal, less global. The devastation caused by the financial crisis of 2007-09 is one explanation. Hostility to immigration is another…. The US and UK have moved into a period marked by suspicion of foreigners and doubts about free markets…. It seems highly likely that this shift will last beyond the personalities now involved. The result is likely to be a different ideological centre of gravity for policy…. [Will]the policies being promoted will assuage the anxiety of those who brought Mr Trump and Mrs May to power[?]…. The opposite is far more likely…. Trump’s… slashing… is likely to be highly damaging to the welfare of many of his supporters. Meanwhile, nothing he does will bring back lost manufacturing and mining jobs. This failure seems sure to make the base angrier….

It would be a good thing if the British and Americans recognised that they do not possess all (perhaps even most) of the answers. They might even learn from others. One encouraging thing about Emmanuel Macron, the French president, is that he has noted this for his own country, pointing to the Scandinavian example of dynamic economies with high levels of social protection. If political traditions are to be renewed, it must be done by being open to ideas from others. The Anglo-Americans should dare to follow Mr Macron’s suit.