A gloomy view of global growth

A bleak view of the world economy by Robert Wade, a professor of political economy at the London School of Economics, in today’s Financial Times. He does not seem to be able to decide whether economic growth is not happening for the mass of the world’s population or whether it is simply undesirable:

• China accounts for the entire fall in the number of extreme poor since the early 1980s.
• In the affluent West people are suffering from over-eating, family breakdown and addiction.
• In developing countries people are becoming disillusioned with economic openness.
• The rise of important new economic states, such as China, brings a risk of war.
• Global oversupply capacity also creates a risk of conflict.

No doubt there are problems and potential problems with the world economy but Wade underestimates the extent to which ordinary people are benefiting from global growth.