Thread by @michaelxpettis

A lot of people, including apparently many in the World Bank, seem to think that the main or perhaps only problem with the current global trading regime is that the benefits of its value creation need to be more fairly distributed...
ft.com/content/ba7d29… via @financialtimes

@FinancialTimes ...They don’t consider that some aspects of our global trading regime are actually value-destroying, not value-creating.
In fact, as Matt Klein and I discuss in our upcoming book (“Trade Wars are Class Wars”), persistent surpluses (along with the resulting persistent deficits,..

@FinancialTimes ...neither of which is supposed to happen in a well-functioning trading system) are the result of policies that penalize some economic groups to the advantage of other economic groups and force the world to choose between slower growth and more debt. In this case it isn’t...

@FinancialTimes ...accurate to say that the benefits are positive but badly distributed; the benefits are actually negative.
That is why the goal of reform should not just be “to even out the effects of globalisation and, in the process, to maintain support for policies that can — if managed...

@FinancialTimes ...well — bring large and widespread benefits.” It should also be to prevent disruptive trade imbalances that undermine growth at the expense of workers, small producers, and middle-class households.