In 1996 I published Globalising Australian Capitalism. The book generally gave a favourable account of the then bipartisan policy response in Australia to the process of the liberalisation of the global economy, then just becoming known as ‘globalisation’. In it, I anticipated an increase in the growth rate of the Australian economy and a generalised prosperity to replace the problems of the early 1980s’ ‘stagflation’ it was designed to resolve. 

Although this proved to be a fairly accurate prediction, and twenty-six years of uninterrupted growth followed, two decades later less positive aspects of globalisation are evident.  

In the developed countries, opening the...