A man walks past a graffiti mural of Donald Trump and Boris Johnson kissing in Bristol, shortly before the EU referendum. Ben Birchall PA Wire/PA Images. All rights reserved. For a long time we have known the power of economists in contemporary American society. Economists are the only social scientists to have an office in the White House – the Council of Economic Advisors – and through the Federal Reserve they are uniquely able to manage a major part of US government policy. Economists have indirect as well as direct influence – through the authority the public gives to their profession and the way their tools of reasoning and analysis have filtered into policy-making. The powers that be choose their economic advisors – so even when there are voices crying out against current economic policy, they aren’t being listened to at a policy level.
We need to understand [Trump's] "unexpected" and "unpredictable" rise to power as a reaction against a very powerful, all-encompassing way of doing things.
This is one of the many backgrounds we need to understand Trump. We need to understand his "unexpected" and "unpredictable" rise to power as a reaction against a very powerful, all-encompassing way of doing things. This way of doing things sees politics from the framework of classical economics. Politics becomes something that can be quantified, analysed and predicted. It is an arena where people in their demographic blocs move accordingly and rationally. Where there are tried and tested ways to win. Where there are rules.
