There is much handwringing among mainstream politicians and pundits over the loss of American leadership, dangers to the liberal international world order, and the retrograde nationalism of the new populism. Yet elites on both sides of the Atlantic continue to ignore the contribution of their own policy- making.

Thus, for example, American policy intellectuals scold the working class for its lack of compassion toward the influx of immigrants, who provide cheaper labor for business by depressing wages at the lower end of the income and education ladder. Yet they never acknowledge their own morally suspect support for the corrupt Central American regimes who protect the violent narco-gangs driving people to the US border. Similarly, European leaders continue to pursue foreign policies that have led to the surge of immigration from the Middle East and Africa – and the rise of a reactionary populist European right.

Incompetence and egomania may cause Donald Trump to self-destruct. Britain and Europe may yet work through the Brexit crisis. But thanks to Trump’s tax cuts and inattention to a building debt bubble –championed by Wall Streeters who bankroll both parties — the US is in a much weaker position to lead the world out of the next recession, which is likely to exacerbate the divisions that drive populist politics.

Instead of fixating on the question, what’s wrong with them? Western policy-makers need to start asking, what’s been wrong with us?

The International Economy, Winter 2019.