POINT OF ORDER: Chinese medicine for West’s 1930s jitters
The emergence of China situating itself as a force in favour of globalisation really turns everything on its head, writes Tim Cohen
The "roaring ’20s, dirty ’30s" was the conceptual ghost that stalked the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos in 2017. The 1920s were a time of booming stock markets and huge product innovations, most notably the advent of mass manufacturing of cars such as the Model T and electronics. Huge fortunes were made and huge cities built. It was the era of the Great Gatsby, a time of consumerism and pyrotechnic extravagance. It was followed, like all good parties, by a massive hangover. Stock markets crashed at the end of the decade, and this was followed by a grinding, decade-long recession. By the end of the 1930s, nationalist political parties had emerged almost everywhere around the world. What we remember most is the growth of fascist movements in Italy and Germany, but it was also the time of Huey Long in the US, just to take one other example. And lest we forget, 1933 saw the split in the National Party into purist and fusionist elements. Shortly before that, the Carnegie commission ...
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