Martin Wolf on the World

As Americans prepare to vote in the November 3 midterm elections, FT chief economics commentator Martin Wolf asks what the result will mean for Donald Trump, the future of US democracy and America's place in the world. In the first of a six-part series of interviews with leading historians and political analysts, Martin speaks to the scholar and former Republican adviser Robert Kagan, who has spent a decade warning about Trump's authoritarian ambitions. They discuss how Trump has accumulated so much power, whether America's democratic institutions can still constrain him, and what might happen if Republicans lose control of Congress. Could these elections mark a turning point for American democracy or has the country already gone too far down the road towards authoritarianism?Watch the full episode now on the FT’s main YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/@FinancialTimesHost: Martin WolfProducer: Mischa Frankl-DuvalSenior Producer: Laurence KnightExecutive Producer: Manuela SaragosaVideo Editor: Richard ToppingAudio engineering: Breen TurnerBroadcast engineers: Andrew GeorgiadisPodcast development: Laura ClarkeFT Global Head of Audio: Flo PhillipsRead a transcript of this episode on FT.com

In the first of this four-part series, the renowned FT columnist and economist Martin Wolf tells the FT’s executive opinion editor Jonathan Derbyshire why he fears the marriage of liberal economics and democracy may be facing its toughest test in decades. Drawing on arguments in his latest book, The Crisis of Democratic Capitalism, Martin explains how his own life story and career have shaped his views.Want more?Martin Wolf: in defence of democratic capitalismFor Martin’s FT columns click hereFor the FT review of Martin’s book click hereThis episode is presented by Jonathan Derbyshire. The producer is Laurence Knight. The executive producer is Manuela Saragosa and the sound engineer is Breen Turner. The FT's global head of audio is Cheryl Brumley. Clips: BBC, CNN, Fox NewsRead a transcript of this episode on FT.com

The fault lines in the currency union stand revealed. The promise was that the eurozone would deliver its members from currency crises. But, as I, and others, warned, be careful what you wish for: credit crises would replace currency crises – and these are likely to be even worse.

Berlin’s emphasis on deflationary adjustment in weaker countries risks turning the eurozone as a whole into a gigantic Germany, dependent on importing demand from the rest of the world, says Martin Wolf

They came; they saw; they lost. That is the reaction to what emerged on global rebalancing at the summit meeting of the Group of 20 leading countries in Seoul last week. Publicly, surplus countries persist in calling on those in deficit to deflate themselves into economic health. The consequences of this folly are now evident in the eurozone. At the world level, the US will never accept it. But, beneath the radar, something more productive may be emerging.

The International Monetary Fund does not normally respond to mere journalists. But its staff have explicitly rejected my arguments on the pace of fiscal consolidation in the UK. On one point – the need for a fiscal “plan B” – the IMF takes my side in the argument with the government. This is no small victory, not least because its latest report on the UK reads, in other respects, as if dictated to it by the Treasury.

The sky is falling, scream the hysterics: the Federal Reserve is pouring forth dollars in such quantities that they will soon be worthless. Nothing could be further from the truth. As in Japan, the policy known as “quantitative easing” is far more likely to prove ineffective than lethal. It is a leaky hose, not a monetary Noah’s Flood.

The debate on “global imbalances” has gone back to the future. The proposal from Tim Geithner, the US Treasury secretary, to target the current account takes us back to the preoccupations of John Maynard Keynes at the Bretton Woods conference of July 1944.