Germany is using its Energiewende policy as a way of envisioning a green transformation and innovation across many sectors.
Companies prefer to put money in the pockets of shareholders or to hoard cash rather than to raise wages or invest.
Brexit and Trump have brought the problems of capitalism into sharp relief, but both are only making things worse. Take the investment challenge - businesses invest where there they see technological or market opportunity.
Real median household incomes in the U.S. were basically the same in 1989 as in 2014. But we are also seeing similar challenges in the U.K. in the stagnation of real wages.
Brexit and Trump's election are forcing countries to come up with new radical ideas.
Growth in productivity has diverged from growth in the share that working people can expect right across advanced economies, but this trend started earlier and has been more pronounced in the U.S.
With a Trump administration we don't know enough yet to make predictions, but if past behavior is any indication, I am not encouraged.
Brexit has shrunk the market opportunities. Exiting trade deals will do the same for the U.S. Those deals must be actively shaped and governed to make growth more inclusive.
The actual division of labor must be reflected in the division of the rewards (and prices, which is the way the consumer gets rewarded).
Another similarity of Brexit and Trump's campaigns was an attack on so-called elites. This is not so much a failure of capitalism as of its high priests in the economic profession, for which we must all take some responsibility.
My specific concerns with Trump's plans are that they are likely to investments in infrastructure where the private returns are highest (for example toll roads and bridges) rather than where the public gains are greatest.
An interesting attribute of public banks is that they don't only de-risk the downside, but also get a share of the upside.
Too many politicians seem to reach for 'infrastructure' as the default answer to investment, as if roads and bridges were the answer to everything. Even the IMF and the World Bank seem to mainly offer infrastructure spending as an alternative to austerity, although they are right to focus on the need for investment.
