From 'globaloney' to 'populoney'

DURING the booming era of globalisation in the 1990s, critics in the populist wings of the progressive left and nationalist right enjoyed mocking the so-called "globalism" school of thought as "globaloney".

Some of the criticism directed at pundits like The New York Times' Tom Friedman of The World Is Flat fame and other proponents of liberalising international trade made sense. There was a certain element of economic determinism, if not wishful thinking, in some of the notions advanced by the fans of globalism, represented by the so-called Davos Man, named after the Swiss resort village where business executives and world leaders congregate each year to discuss global economic issues.

Some of those bullish on globalisation envisioned it as not a zero-sum game - a process that would benefit workers and consumers in the emerging markets, where it would create a vibrant middle class, as well as in the industrialised world, where it would replace the old manufacturing sector with new knowledge industries.