A scary new world?

International economic and political order, led by the US, is under threat from Trump administration

Have the first five months of the Trump presidency taken us into a scarier new world of global economics and politics? I believe so. 

In broad terms, the 70 years since the Second World War (WW2) saw the rise of a liberal international economic order (LIEO) for trade, capital flows and, to a limited extent, skilled labour. It also witnessed the economic development of emerging nations, many of which had been under colonial rule. The LIEO was buttressed by a set of international institutions, created under US leadership after WW2, notably the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the General