Dangerous global trends spiking

Medford

IT'S Brexit all over again. Donald Trump, a candidate who managed to offend most demographics, shocked the world by winning the US presidential race. The race's competitiveness suggests deep dissatisfaction with the status quo, and governing such a discontented nation promises to be a challenging task. Republicans retain control of the Senate and the House of Representatives.

In the United Kingdom, the Brexit vote underlined the discontent many felt while the European Union faces rising extremist parties and calls for similar referenda. Meanwhile Syria and Yemen are being destroyed. Deranged democracies in Venezuela and the Philippines and dysfunctional dictatorships in North Korea, Zimbabwe and arguably Thailand all point to an unravelling that is beyond worrying. If this were not enough, a debt-ridden Chinese economy doubles down on old solutions while becoming ever more aggressive externally, and Russia's economy sinks while Putin fiddles in Ukraine and Syria. Is this where globalisation has brought us?