Globalisation's ill effects have been wildly exaggerated

Washington

GLOBALISATION has gotten a bad rap. The Trump White House associates it with all manner of economic evil, especially job loss. The administration has made undoing the damage a central part of its economic strategy. This will almost certainly fail and disappoint, because globalisation's ill effects have been wildly exaggerated.

A new report shows why. It comes from the Peterson Institute for International Economics, a think-tank. Granted, Peterson is widely known for its pro-trade views, so its support for globalisation is no surprise. Still, it gives both sides of the story, and the numbers speak for themselves. The report (The Payoff to America from Globalisation: A Fresh Look with a Focus on Costs to Workers by Gary Hufbauer and Zhiyao Lucy Lu) makes three main points.