Davos and the new era of deglobalisation

Rana Foroohar

THIS week, the global elite will convene once again in Davos, Switzerland, after a two-year pandemic break, for the World Economic Forum. The conversation will revolve around deglobalisation and its discontents. I expect the headlines will be that decoupling between China and the US is untenable, free trade always works just as David Ricardo thought it would, and unless we return to the mid-1990s status quo of neoliberalism, doom awaits.

Readers of this column will know I don’t agree. Yes, our most recent round of globalisation produced more wealth than the world has ever known. Unfortunately, as the economist Dani Rodrik has pointed out, for every $1 of efficiency gain from trade, there is typically $50 worth of redistribution towards the rich. The economic and political consequences of that are the key reason that we are now in a period of deglobalisation.