Should-Read: Bill Emmott: Populism Versus Prosperity

Should-Read: Bill Emmott: Populism Versus Prosperity: “The Wake Up 2050 Index ranks the 35 mainly advanced-country members of the OECD according to their preparedness in five areas…

…demography, the knowledge society, technological innovation, globalization, and resilience…. Switzerland tops the index…. The country’s populists are a single-issue brigade–with that issue being immigration–and have far too little support to enter government…. Given Switzerland’s reputation for being wealthy, well educated, innovative, and resilient, its success in the index may not seem surprising. But with wage levels among the world’s highest and 19% of its GDP coming from manufacturing (compared with 12% in the US and 10% in the UK), it should, in theory, be highly vulnerable to Chinese competition and job-destroying automation. Yet it has largely shrugged off these challenges…. The value of long-term planning is perhaps most apparent in Japan. Despite being the advanced economy experiencing the fastest population aging, Japan scores rather well on demography…. Anticipating the demographic shift it would undergo, the country has kept more than 20% of over-65s in the workforce, compared to just 2.9% in France. The US scores worse than expected on both innovation and knowledge. Poor performance among secondary schools and a low overall labor-force participation rate…