As she noted in a speech in Hong Kong last week, there is good economic news around the world. The IMF has been issuing increasingly firm warnings about the risk of a trade war in the 16 months since Donald Trump won the US presidency. Lagarde’s concern is not just that Washington and Beijing will become embroiled in a trade war, but that protectionism will spread in a fashion not seen since the 1930s. It is incomplete because too many people have been left behind during the upswing that followed the deep recession of 2008-09. Back in 2006 and early 2007, the IMF was asleep at the wheel as the global economy careered towards a devastating crisis.

Source: The Guardian April 14, 2018 15:00 UTC