Odd Lots · Monday, July 27, 2026
Branko Milanovic, author of "The Great Global Transformation," argues that the era of neoliberal globalization is ending and being replaced by 'national market liberalism.' This new order prioritizes national economic interests and protectionism over free trade and global capital flows, while maintaining liberal domestic policies. Milanovic suggests this shift is driven by a recognition of global economic competition and the need to protect domestic industries and employment.
“And how that order, which you might call near liberal globalization, is now expiring. And when I think, actually my entire life, I remember each of these four orders, and I'm now present at the birth of what they called national market liberalism, which I think, as you were saying before, is a new economic order where lots of activities would be brought back home and where external economic policies would be essentially mercantilistic and not free trade.”
“What is happening now is that we take this entire international part, chop it off and say, wait, these rules do not apply anymore. What applies now is essentially national sort of amercantilist policy. It's a policy of you know, bagger day lahbor to some extent, but certainly zero sum game or even a negative some game.”
“But domestically, I really see the administrations like Trump, Macron and others. I see them as essentially continuing with neoliberal policies domestically. So that's what I think. Actually, that's why I wented this new term. That was the kind of national liberalism. So it's not and do more precise national liberalism on the market side, not necessarily on the social side domestically.”