“Germany is a disaster right now,” says Donald Trump. A lot of Europeans would agree. Chancellor Angela Merkel’s open-door refugee policy is leading to widespread discontent. Her political position is “becoming weaker”, says the Financial Times. Why? Because she represents the spirit of a different age – a more optimistic era, when people believed in free trade, democratic government, and ever-rising prosperity.
The zeitgeist has changed. In Britain, France, the Netherlands, Slovakia, Hungary, and America, the candidates getting the most enthusiastic support are those who urge closing borders, restricting trade, and looking to protect themselves from all that is threatening or different.
Forget free trade! Forget freedom of travel! Stop immigration –especially of the Muslims and Mexicans! Build a wall! Torture your enemies! Stop trying to expand the empire! Gone is the brave optimism of the 1980s (remember “Morning in America”?), and the bumptious corruption of the 1990s (remember Monica Lewinsky?). Now, we are old, tired, fearful, cowardly, and cranky. We want a strong leader to protect us – one who promises to make us strong again, to make us young again.
It has taken us a long time to understand The Donald. We have been studyinghim, reading his books, listening to him talk. He is not a conservative – but he is the conservatives’ choice. He is not a religious man – but he is getting the born-again Christian vote. He is a Republican in name only – but the Republicans have him as their standard bearer. Go figure.
But we think we have figured him out, and now we have him – like a butterfly pinned to the wall. Tuesday brought news that “US drug prices doubled in five years”. How could that happen? No voter is going to think too hard about it, or connect it to the real cause: the insiders’ control of the pharmaceutical and medical service industries. Instead, he is going to look for someone to blame – and someone strong enough to fix the situation.
Hillary Clinton was quick to jump on the case, calling aggressive pricing by drug-maker Valeant “predatory”… adding: “I’m going after them”. But voters know Hillary will cosy up to anyone – Wall Street, the National Security Agency, the military, Big Pharma – if it gains her money or power; they know she will sell them out. Yet Trump appears to be a man who can’t be bought. He’s got enough money already. And his “straight-talking” style suggests he might shoot straight, too. When he talks, voters believe he means business.
Of course, the typical voter has no way of knowing what is going on. When hit by a contraction, he shrinks, too. In the US, median incomes are lower today than they were ten years ago. But it is notjust a matter of money. The temper of the times has changed. The credit system is just part of it. We want what we have lost: a growing economy, growing wages – growing hair! Give up our liberty, and our dignity, to get it? It seems a small price to pay!
Says The Donald: “Make America Great Again.” Yeah… just like it was before.
Category: Economics