The US Election, Brexit and the populist wave

2016, like no other year in recent memory, brought to the surface the reality that far too many people are being left behind in the global economy. The U.S. presidential election, the Brexit vote, and the shifting winds on trade and globalization, represented a backlash from some in the middle class who feel “increasingly alienated from elites and government institutions,” says Harvard professor of economics, Robert Lawrence.  Inclusive growth, they feel, has bypassed them.

The events, he says, challenge the conventional thinking about who benefits from inclusive growth. “When we talked previously of inclusive economic growth, we generally used the term to mean growth that is broad enough to include the poor, women, people of different races and sexual orientation.”  But he says what we have learned over the last year reminds us that “inclusive growth means inclusive growth. It must literally include everybody.”

The results of the US election have reverberated around the world, adding to the uncertainty around the course of global trade, which suffered a blow when the UK voted to leave the European Union in June.

Image: Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon inaugurated the Canal Top Solar Power Plant, in Gujarat, India. 2015.