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Why the consequences of a prolonged period of weaker economic growth will be more profound than anyone dares to predict

In the heady progress of the post-war era, our lifestyles changed, our political systems adapted, and rapid economic growth became the model of every developed economy. But this prevailing consensus is falling apart around us. Growth is now, at best, no more than anaemic. Policymakers dream about an AI revolution and tweak their fiscal rules to accommodate a newly-austere economic reality but, all the while, government debt soars, financial markets become increasingly jittery, and voters lose trust in their politicians.

Celebrated economist Stephen D. King asks how our politics will adapt to such persistently low growth. While leaders make fiscal promises based on a future that is unlikely to materialise, nationalism thrives, battlelines are drawn between perceived winners and losers, and the rules-based international order crumbles. The absence of growth triggers invidious political wrangling over tax, welfare, defence and infrastructure, intensifies competition for resources, and leads to social instability.

King shows how our new world is governed by them-and-us divisions over limited economic spoils. This is the political economy of plunder.