“The End of US-Led World Order”

 This article is talking about the most difficult global outlook since the Depression.  But the last paragraphs had the prophetic part…USA’s dominance in globalization is a thing of the past.  Also pre-WWI was highlighted by war, pandemic and protectionism and now history seems to be repeating itself in build up to pre-WWIII.

****************

In truth, not a lot happened in Washington last week. There was the usual flurry of reports but not much else. Beneath the surface, however, something much more important is going on, and that is the breakup of the US-dominated form of globalisation.

The model involved western companies outsourcing manufacturing to China and other low-cost destinations, and for a while it delivered cheap goods, which kept inflation low and made life easy for central banks.

Those days are now over. The US and Europe want to protect jobs by limiting imports of Chinese goods and subsidising their own manufacturing sectors. Only last week, Joe Biden called for a tripling of tariffs on Chinese steel in a move designed to appeal to blue-collar workers in swing states.

This is not the first time this has happened. The pre-first world war era of globalisation fell apart as a result of war, a pandemic, inflation and protectionism. Little by little, history is repeating itself.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2024/apr/21/most-difficult-global-outlook-for-a-century-heralds-end-of-us-led-world-order-imf