Stories

Helping the places globalization forgot

A truck travels on an overpass towards the World Trade Bridge, in Laredo, Texas. Photo: Eric Gay / AP

"The right way to help declining places: Time for fresh thinking about the changing economics of geography" — The Economist's lead editorial:

  • "Populism's wave has yet to crest. That is the sobering lesson of recent elections in Germany and Austria, where the success of anti-immigrant, anti-globalisation parties showed that a message of hostility to elites and outsiders resonates as strongly as ever among those fed up with the status quo."
  • "It is also the lesson from America, where Donald Trump is doubling down on gestures to his angry base, most recently by adopting a negotiating position on NAFTA that is more likely to wreck than remake the trade agreement."
  • Be smart: "The demise of NAFTA will disproportionately hurt the blue-collar workers who back Mr Trump."
  • "Welcome to the place age. ... Mainstream parties must offer voters who feel left behind a better vision of the future, one that takes greater account of the geographical reality behind the politics of anger."
  • Politicians need "to focus on speeding up the diffusion of technology and business practices from high-performing places. ... Bolder still would be to expand the mission of local colleges."