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Martin Wolf

Wednesday 21st of January 2026

2008 financial crisis The financial crisis of 2008-09 and the resulting recession were a historical watershed. The pre-crisis world was one of globalisation, belief in markets and confident democracies. Today's is a mirror image. Martin Wolf, Financial Times, October 9, 2018 © 2018 Kwiple.com
By the numbers The revised Trump plan would reduce the top individual income tax rate to 33 per cent and the corporate tax rate to 15 per cent. It would also eliminate the estate tax. The highest-income taxpayers – 0.1 per cent of the population, those with incomes over $3.7 million in 2016 dollars – would receive an average tax cut of more than 14 per cent of after-tax income. The poorest fifth's taxes would fall by an average of 0.8 per cent of taxed income. To those who hath, it shall be given. Martin Wolf, Financial Times, November 16, 2016 © 2016 Kwiple.com
COVID-19 coronavirus No event better demonstrates why a quality administrative state, led by people able to differentiate experts from charlatans, is so vital to the public. Martin Wolf, Financial Times, March 17, 2020 © 2020 Kwiple.com
Democracy Democracy can be defined as a civilised civil war. It recognises the existence of differences of opinion, but resolves these peacefully,  through elections, which are the fundamental institution of representative democracy. Elections determine legitimacy. But to do so they must be recognised as fair. A lie about the outcome of an election, then, is not just any lie. It is not even just any political lie. It directly threatens democracy. It is an attempt to overthrow elections as the arbiter of power. Martin Wolf, Financial Times, May 2, 2023 © 2023 Kwiple.com
Democracy The soft power of democracy is not what it was. It has produced Mr Trump as leader of the world's most important country. It is not an advertisement. Martin Wolf, Financial Times, May 31, 2017 © 2017 Kwiple.com
Democracy The two countries that saved liberal democracy in the 20th century have lost their moral compass. Many citizens no longer seem to care whether their leaders are scoundrels. Not long ago, people viewed these nations as models of successful democracy. Now the US is viewed as a bully and the UK as a fool. Messrs Trump and [Boris] Johnson [the expected next prime minister] are seen as contemptible, ludicrous or both. Martin Wolf, Financial Times, June 27, 2019 © 2019 Kwiple.com
Fear The shocks of recent years have made generous and effective action more politically difficult in high-income countries. Frightened people become inward-looking. Martin Wolf, Financial Times, June 13, 2023 © 2023 Kwiple.com
Foreign relations Today, hopes of a co-operative global economic order, which reached their zenith at the G20’s London summit of April 2009, have evaporated. Yet it is hardly a case of “Goodbye G20, hello G7”. The earlier world of G7 domination is even  more remote than that of G20 co-operation. Neither global co-operation nor western domination look feasible. What might follow? Alas, “division” might be one answer and “anarchy” another. Martin Wolf, Financial Times, May 23, 2023 © 2023 Kwiple.com
Government Why will the state tend to grow faster than the economy? First, the economy needs a well-educated and healthy labour force. Second, the services supplied by the state are ones in which it is hard to raise productivity, which tends to make them increasingly expensive. Third, spending on transfers and health will rise with the proportion of the population that is old and infirm. Finally, higher spending on transfers and essential services is also what voters demand. Martin Wolf, Financial Times, November 13, 2022, © 2022 Kwiple.com
Income inequality The shocks of the past three years have hit all countries, but they have hit emerging and developing countries particularly hard. As a result, according to Global Economic Prospects 2023, just out from the World Bank, the convergence of average incomes between poor and rich countries has stalled. Worse, it might not soon return, given the damage already done and likely to persist in the years ahead. … According to the bank,  the number of people suffering “food insecurity” (that is, on the borders of starvation) in low-income countries jumped from 56mn in 2019 to 105mn in 2022. Martin Wolf, Financial Times, January 10, 2023 © 2023 Kwiple.com
Markets One has to remember three big things about the market economy. The first and most fundamental is that one must not do everything that is profitable. Indeed, there has to be a lengthy list of activities one is not entitled to do. The second is that some of the things one must not do might be legal or, if contrary to law, hard to prevent. The last and most important therefore is that the survival of a civilised society depends on moral restraint, particularly from its leading figures. Martin Wolf, Financial Times, May 2, 2023 © 2023 Kwiple.com
Money in politics Money buys politicians. This is plutocracy, not democracy. Martin Wolf, Financial Times, December 4, 2019 © 2019 Kwiple.com
Pluto-populism This [GOP sycophancy] is no accident. It is the logical outcome of the political and economic strategy of the “pluto-populist”. Mr Trump is a natural outcome of the strategic goal of the donor class – tax cuts and deregulation.  To achieve this end, they have to convince a large proportion of the population to vote against its economic interests by focusing on culture and identity.  This strategy has worked and will continue to work: Mr Trump may have gone; Trumpism has not. Martin Wolf, Financial Times, December 22, 2020 © 2020 Kwiple.com
Populism Cultural change and the economic decline of the working classes increased disaffection. But the financial crisis opened the door to a populist surge. Martin Wolf, Financial Times, June 28, 2017 © 2017 Kwiple.com
Populism Post-Reagan Republicans reached out to the base by campaigning on cultural issues, while legislating for the upper 1 per cent. That is “pluto-populism”. … Pluto-populism is highly politically effective. But it works by making the base ever angrier and more desperate. That is playing with political fire. The republic may survive Mr Trump. But what comes after? Martin Wolf, Financial Times, May 2, 2017 © 2018 Kwiple.com
Populism Stable democracy is incompatible with a belief that fellow citizens are “enemies of the people”. We must recognise and address the anger that causes populism. But populism is an enemy of good government and even of democracy. Martin Wolf, Financial Times, June 28, 2017 © 2017 Kwiple.com
Snapshot The leader of the world's most powerful country is a dangerous ignoramus. Donald Trump portrayed by Martin Wolf © 2018 Kwiple.com
Snapshot Mr Trump is the logical outcome of a politics that serves the interests of the plutocracy. He gives the rich what they desire, while offering the nationalism and protectionism wanted by the Republican base. It is a brilliant (albeit unplanned) combination, embodied in a charismatic personality that offers validation to his most passionate supporters. Will Trump's protectionism do many in his base any good? No. But, in their eyes, he is a real leader, at last. Donald Trump portrayed by Martin Wolf © 2018 Kwiple.com
State of the union The poor state of so many Americans is in part a product of plutocratic politics: a relentless and systematic devotion to the interests of the very rich. … a politics of low taxes, low social spending and high inequality is sustainable in a universal suffrage democracy only with a mixture of propaganda in favour of “trickle down” economics, splitting the less well off on cultural and racial lines, ruthless gerry- mandering and outright voter suppression. All this has indeed happened. These are the politics of “pluto-populism” or of “greed and grievance”. They have been stunningly successful in making Republicans attractive to many in the white working class. Martin Wolf, Financial Times, 2018/07/17 © 2018 Kwiple.com
Ukraine Putin's assault threatens the core values and interests on which postwar Europe is built: inviolability of frontiers; peaceful co-operation among states; and democracy. It particularly threatens the security of the countries closest to Russia, which were, not long ago, inside the Soviet empire. If Putin wins, who comes next?  No line can be drawn between our values and our interests, whatever "realists" suggest. Our values are our interests. This war is for a way of life built on the ideal of freedom from destructive coercion  by thugs like Putin. This makes it our war, too. Martin Wolf, Financial Times, February 28, 2023 © 2023 Kwiple.com
Wealth inequality To those that have it shall be given. That is the doctrine of Mr Trump. It is also the old Republican trickle-down doctrine in purest form. Martin Wolf, Financial Times, May 2, 2017 © 2018 Kwiple.com
the West The west must accept its relative decline or engage in a grossly immoral and probably ruinous struggle to prevent that. That is the most important truth of our era. Martin Wolf, Financial Times, May 16, 2018 © 2018 Kwiple.com
 
Working class Mr Trump promises a burst of infra- structure spending, regressive tax cuts, protectionism, cuts in federal spending and radical deregulation. A big rise in infrastructure spending would indeed help construction workers. But little else in these plans would help the working class. Overall, his plans might indeed generate a brief economic surge. But the longer-term consequences are likely to be grim, not least for his angry, but fooled, supporters. Next time, they might be even angrier. Where that might lead is terrifying. Martin Wolf, Financial Times, November 16, 2016 © 2016 Kwiple.com