First published: prospectmagazine.co.uk, 8/02/2016
“To hijack Charles Dickens, the US economy is characterised by wisdom and foolishness”
The New Hampshire primary, which takes place tomorrow, 9th February, has a poor record when it comes to picking the eventual president (unless they were already incumbents). Since 1976, its Republican nominees have only twice gone on to become president—Ronald Reagan and George H Bush, while only one Democratic nominee, Jimmy Carter, reached the White House. So, whatever happens in New Hampshire, political speculation about the presidential race will build through the spring, with intriguing implications for us all.
This time round, the dysfunctional nature of both major political parties and their loss of popular support to fringe or non-traditional candidates, such as Trump, Cruz and Sanders, could spring a bigger, more awkward surprise than Leicester City winning the Premier League. At the very least, the presidential race has become a laboratory in which important economic issues are being re-framed, and sometimes in overtly populist fashion….Read more:
