Peter Navarro is about to become one of the world’s most powerful economists
There are reasons to be worried about the head of Donald Trump’s new National Trade Council
THE day after Ronald Reagan won his second term as president in 1984, a doctoral student at Harvard University published his second book. “The Policy Game: How Special Interests and Ideologues are Stealing America” complained that greedy interest groups and misguided ideologues had led America to “a point in its history where it cannot grow and prosper”. The solution: increase political participation and swap ideology for pragmatism.
On January 20th that student, now a professor, will enter the White House as part of a populist insurgency. Peter Navarro, a China-bashing eccentric who will lead the new National Trade Council, has emerged as the brains behind Donald Trump’s brawn on trade. Lauded as a “visionary” by Mr Trump, Mr Navarro may soon be the world’s most powerful economist working outside a central bank.
This article appeared in the Briefing section of the print edition under the headline "Free-trader turned game-changer"
From the January 21st 2017 edition
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