Johannesburg - A more inward-looking US could be the death knell for its dominant hegemony on the global economy, Standard Bank chief economist Goolam Ballim told Fin24.
Ballim delivered a presentation this week on the global and local economy in 2017.
Trump’s efforts to maximise US interests within its borders will be closely watched, said Ballim.
“It could also in time result in productivity levels in America subsiding simply to the extent that it locks out the opportunity for more effective supply chain developments that effectively deliver greater productivity (and) greater production over the medium to longer term.”
“Over the last couple of centuries we've had empires and more than a dozen of them at some time or another had reigned,” said Ballim.
“If Donald Trump pursues this course, it would only hasten the end of America's empire, of Western-led liberalism that was certainly charged by the United States and globalisation that was effectively pioneered by the United States. So, these are longer term dynamics,” he added.
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