Saturday, May 17, 2025

The Economic Web of Life

“Around 300 million companies worldwide connected by an estimated 13 billion supply links now face unprecedented uncertainty.” — Foreign Affairs

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Maybe the best way to make sense of the modern global economy is by thinking of it in ecological terms. Almost every good or service we consume or produce is connected one way or another with almost every other good or service worldwide through a complex web of interrelated technologies, supply chains and trade policies.

Therefore, there really are no ”national” economies any longer — that’s just one of the fantasies Trump sells to his MAGA crowd. 

But it is a dangerous fantasy because it leads to jingoistic policies like Trump’s trade wars, which undermine global security and economic stability.

The full extent of globalization became apparent during the Covid pandemic, when shortages of necessities illustrated how utterly dependent we all are on each other across space and time. Of course, Trump doesn’t see that interdependence as a strength but a weakness, so he is trying to reverse engineer our economy.

That will fail. Globalization can’t be reversed; all he can do is inflict unnecessary damage here and overseas by his antagonistic tariff policies lifted from the first decade of the 1900s.

Maybe Trump and his advisers are beginning to realize that they can’t fight the future with the past and that this isn’t going to end well for them. Then again, Trump can always ride off over the horizon on Qatari Air Force One.

HEADLINES:

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