There may be a variety of reasons why people choose populist parties, but one thing seems to be one: the subjective feeling of being too short, for example, fueled by reports on supposedly lazy citizen plants. There is rarely talking about tax -optimizing billionaires. But those who promise simple solutions usually make it worse. So the clear warning of Hans-Jörg Naumer, head of the capital market analysis by Allianz Global Investors (AGI): “Populism endangers prosperity.”
An essential characteristics of populism is the delimitation of the “true will to popular” against the supposedly corrupt elites, ie “the up there”. This is how Naumer and Stefan Hofrichter, also a economist at AGI, define it in their newly published short compendium “Capitalism – Populism – Democracy” (Springer Gabler). Accordingly, populist politicians specify to represent the true will, as if outside the elites all had the same needs, views and goals. Although populists are part of the elite themselves, or at least be financed by some of their relatives. US President Donald Trump’s election campaign was financed by Elon Musk and thus the richest person in the world.
Marx quote at the beginning
The two economists have given a remarkable sentence to their 52 -page book: “A ghost is about in Europe.” It is the first sentence from the communist manifesto of Karl Marx, published in the revolutionary year 1848. The current ghost is populism, which is currently under pressure from the right, especially from the right. “Overall, it can be seen that populism has multiple economic reasons,” write the two authors. These include globalization, migration and technological changes. “In total, they amount to fear of relegation and distribution conflicts that are reinforced when trust in politics and fairness are undermined.”
Naumer and court judges initially analyze the causes of the rise of populists, from the unevenly distributed profits of globalization to echo chambers on social media, in which fake news resists and intensify. “Effective half -truths or lies spread faster and further than the truth,” they stated. “Fake news and fake narratives are means of choosing populism.”
What effects does this have on the economy? After all, voters from AfD, BSW or Donald Trump hope that they are doing better through their politics. Such expectations are unrealistic, is the sober conclusion of the two authors, also because the populists often act with half -truths and lies: “If a world view is built on wrong narratives, you cannot expect efficient results in economic action.”
