If Donald Trump were to return to the White House as president, the implications for the US, its allies and the global economy are sure to be profound.
On November 19, 1919, the US Senate repudiated the Versailles Treaty. With that decision, the US withdrew its might from maintaining what had been agreed in the aftermath of World War I, leaving this task to the British and French, who lacked both the will and the means to do so.
World War II followed. After that conflict, the US played a far more productive role. Today, the world is still in many ways the one the US made. But for how much longer will that be the case? And what might follow it? The outcome of the next presidential election might answer these questions, not just decisively, but, alas, very badly.
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Financial Times
Martin Wolf is chief economics commentator at the Financial Times, London. He was awarded the Commander of the British Empire in 2000 “for services to financial journalism”.
