Joseph Stiglitz: what the US economy needs from Donald Trump

Too many Americans feel left behind by globalisation. But Trump is unlikely to pursue the agenda his voters need. This is what he should do

Donald Trump's astonishing victory in the US presidential election has made one thing abundantly clear: too many Americans - particularly white male Americans - feel left behind. It is not just a feeling, it can be seen in the data no less clearly than in their anger. And, as I have argued repeatedly, an economic system that doesn't deliver for large parts of the population is a failed economic system. So what should President-elect Trump do about it?

Over the past third of a century, the rules of America's economic system have been rewritten in ways that serve a few at the top, while harming the economy as a whole, and especially the bottom 80%. The irony of Trump's victory is that it was the Republican party he now leads that pushed for extreme globalisation and against the policy frameworks that would have mitigated the trauma associated with it. But history matters: China and India are now integrated into the global economy. Besides, technology has been advancing so fast that the number of jobs globally in manufacturing is declining.

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