Revolution

For 50 years after WW2 the world relied on the United States as the leader of the free world to promote and develop the concept of globalization. The basic idea was that using free and open trade would allow all countries to prosper and in time bring communist countries around to free market economies which would then lead to political freedom. For 50 years this was allowed to grow and it led to bringing one billion people out of poverty. China opened its economy to the free market but it never carried over to free politics. China remained communist while its economy grew rapidly by selling low cost manufactured goods to the West, primarily the US. In American it caused the loss of millions of manufacturing jobs while the rich got richer. Corporate profits rose from 5% of GDP to 8% while the stock market rose 7.5%. Income for working people stagnated while CEO salaries sky rocketed. The US was providing defense for the European countries along with far eastern countries like Japan, Vietnam, Thailand and the Philippians. The US was providing the bulk of the financing for world groups like the UN and WTO. This led to a US national debt of $36 trillion and trade deficits of $1.2 trillion. While international businesses were enjoying the benefits the country as a whole was facing a crisis and something had to change. That change started about 15 years ago as the US began to move away from globalization. It has caused a quiet revolution as the US is forcing other countries to start to take care of themselves and they are not happy. They do not want to spend money on their own national defense and agree to fair trade practices but that is what they are facing. Nationalism has replaced globalism and it is happening in Europe and the US.