A new economic playbook for policymakers

[LONDON] Voters in many countries are furious. Democratic leaders, lacking a playbook, seem unable to address the causes of that fury. The only people benefiting from this vacuum are populists and wannabe strongmen.

In Britain, the Labour government looks like it wants to go back to the tax-and-spend solutions of the past, while some Conservatives pine for a revival of Margaret Thatcher’s free-market policies. Both appear clueless in articulating a vision that is attractive to today’s voters.

Especially damning is the perception, common in many countries, that governments, hamstrung by political paralysis or excessive regulation, cannot get anything done. If democratic politicians are all talk and no action, then populists, with their boasts (rarely fulfilled) of decisive action to come, offer an appealing alternative.