There isn't much on the political stage to inspire confidence, and this week's US presidential election may be the nadir. Central to the decay of the body politic is the 2008 financial crisis that set off the rise of populism. Add stagnant or declining economic performance to rising immigration, inequality, perceptions of corruption, a demagogue in Donald Trump and you have a recipe for a populist crisis, said British historian Niall Ferguson, who will be a guest speaker at the Discovery Leadership Summit on November 14. Populists appeal to cultural conservatism. "This is why so many people see elements of racism in the Trump campaign - generally anything that is hostile to progressive values," Ferguson said in an interview with Business Times from Stanford, California. Since the financial crisis, the world has seen its fair share of populist domination. In the US, the most unlikely presidential candidate, Trump, has risen on a wave of despondency and ridden a populist ticket, much ...
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