I don't even know where to start with the problems in this piece. Wait I do.
Calling the New Deal "populist" when it was conceived, executed, and screwed up by the elite of the elite is just madness. Rodrik ignores the way it was modeled on both elements of Soviet planning and Italian Fascism (as both groups acknowledged), neither of which came from, or served the interest of, the masses in any real way.
He also assumes without argument that we all understand how awful the gold standard was and that the New Deal was responsible for ending the Great Depression, both of which are highly contested.
Worst of all, we get this paragraph:
"President Trump and his European counterparts have capitalized on the economic difficulties of the middle and lower-middle classes by wrapping them in narratives that exploit prevailing ethno-nationalist prejudices. In the United States, they attribute declining wages and job prospects to Mexican immigrants, Chinese exporters and the federal government’s preoccupation with minority groups at the expense of the white middle class. In Europe, they lay the blame for the erosion of the welfare state and public services on competition from immigrants and refugees. But none of this really helps the middle and lower-middle classes. Worse, the illiberal politics of the strategy undermines democracy."
Let's back up the bus here and check out FDR's record:
- Prosecutes four kosher butchers (brothers) as symbols of profiteering in the face of the NIRA using some of the worse anti-Semitic stereotypes around.
- The NIRA and Wagner Act (not to mention Davis-Bacon in 1931) had both the intent and effect making it much harder for blacks to compete in labor markets
- Turns away Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany
- Creates a concentration camp for Japanese-Americans
So which program attempted to "exploit prevailing ethno-nationalist prejudices" again?
What a steaming pile of crap this piece is.