Globalization’s castaways haunt central bankers

MASSENA, NEW YORK/ JACKSON HOLE, WYOMING: After a turbulent year of antiglobalization backlash, central bankers still argue open borders and free trade are the key to more jobs, growth and prosperity.

But when they meet for the US Federal Reserve’s annual research conference in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, this week, it will be with the growing recognition that the world economic order they helped create could unravel unless the benefits of globalization can reach those left behind.

That means addressing the concerns of people like Grace Paige, a grandmother of seven from the struggling St. Lawrence County in northern New York state.

When Donald Trump promised to revive ‘middle America’ by rolling back decades of globalization, Paige decided to give him a chance.

The otherwise dependable Democratic voter sat out the election, contributing to the county’s swing from a 57-per cent majority for Barack Obama in 2012 to a 51-per cent vote for Trump’s economic nationalism.

“My grandkids need jobs,” she said, counting out the ways her county has been abandoned over the last decade with the shuttering of a General Motors car factory, an aluminium plant, and the Sears department store where Paige once worked.

Central bankers reject Trump’s economic nationalism, including renewed threats to tear up the 23-year-old North American Free Trade Agreement, if it leads to more protectionism. —