This is actually an interesting article, one of few that with credibility paints recent global history with a broad brush, as a pendulum swinging between laissez faire economic policies and a more restrictive, protectionist state. The former characterized by massive accumulation of private wealth and economic inequalities and the latter by rise of nationalism, protectionism and state power. The article implies that these policy changes are not tendencies that play out in isolation within countries, but are global long waves of history, and even offers some explanations as to why the globe might transition from one to the other.

The reasons offered might not be fully satisfactory, but I find this to be a better perspective than the explanations that try to pin the cause of such massive changes in policy on individual people and their personalities, be they Jiang Zemin, Margaret Thatcher, Donald Trump etc. Until we figure out how to stabilize these fluctuations then they, and we, and Jack Ma too, are just riding these long waves, trying to navigate the opportunities and/or disadvantages that each phase offers.