GMU economist Tyler Cowen – Don't Blame Davos Man for Globalization's Limits
“The wisdom behind
globalization isn’t a belief that it will be steered by very wise elites.
Rather, most economic processes show elements of convergence, stability and
mean-reversion, without anyone planning them. It’s a common metaphor of chaos
theory that a single flap of a butterfly’s wings may cause a hurricane on the
other side of the world, but in the realm of economics the analogue hardly ever
happens. Stability is the norm, and most big events have fairly significant
causes.
Or consider illegal
immigration, another common complaint among populists. There was a significant
influx of undocumented Mexican workers during the George W. Bush
administration, in part to staff the construction for the real estate boom and
then bubble. Since the Great Recession, that flow of labor has ended, and there
has been net negative migration, namely more Mexicans have returned to their
home country than have arrived in the U.S. Again, that is an example of a
self-reversing process rather than deliberate planning by elites.”