Global Growth and Local Discontent

Since the fall of the Berlin Wall, economic reforms have created winners and losers, driving both an unprecedented rise in the prosperity of the emerging market and developing countries formerly known as "Third World," and local discontent. Discontent with globalization is not new. But the US Administration's April 2, 2025, tariff announcement, followed by a series of additional actions, marked the end of Pax Americana, the very foundation on which globalization and its attendant economic gains were built. The question is not whether the previous world order will return, but rather which economic principles and practices of that order were responsible for the undeniable increases in worldwide standards of living and life expectancy during its tenure, and how do we ensure that those principles and practices - again, essential for generating the material surplus required for universal human thriving - survive in the new rules of the game.