Tom Friedman: End of an Era
What if a bunch of eras are ending all at once?
.. What if we’re at the end of the 30-plus-year era of high growth in China ..
.. What if the $100-a-barrel oil price era is over and all these countries whose economies were directly or indirectly propped up by those prices will have to learn to grow the old-fashioned way ..
.. But what if the E.U. era is over?
.. What if the era of Iranian isolation is over, just as the Arab system is collapsing and the two-state solution between Israelis and Palestinians is history?
.. And what if all of this is happening at a time when our government’s ability to stimulate the economy through either monetary or fiscal policy is constrained?
.. Bernie Sanders’s platform is that we can solve our most onerous economic problems if we just tax “The Man” more. Donald Trump and Ted Cruz are running on the theme that they are “The Man” — the strongman — who can magically fix everything.
.. What if our 2016 election ends up being between a socialist and a borderline fascist — ideas that died in 1989 and 1945 respectively?