What really controls our global economy

AFTER decades of giddy globalisation, the pendulum is swinging back to the nation.

These days, all the talk is about bringing supply chains home. The US Congress just passed a nearly US$400 billion bill intended to increase domestic production, aid in a green energy transition and reduce foreign dependence. Pundits have declared the dawn of a new era – the age of economic nationalism.

But what if globalisation has progressed so far that it exists even within national borders, and we just haven’t had the right lenses to see it?