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Populism Is Being Driven by Automation

Populism Is Being Driven by Automation

(Bloomberg) --

As 2020 approaches, the financial industry is busy issuing global outlooks for the new year. Recession? Trade deal? Higher or lower bond yields? Wilmington Trust Corp. threw another major risk into the mix: the continued rise of populism.

Luke Tilley, chief economist at Wilmington and a former adviser with the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, joins this week’s “What Goes Up’’ podcast to discuss how next year will accelerate the “tug of war” between “productivity, populism and portfolios.”

“The rise of populism around the globe… at its core is the rise in productivity,” Tilley says. “Firms have turned to robotics and artificial intelligence—all kinds of technology that increases their productivity. And one of the outcomes is that less of income, less of GDP, is actually going to the worker,’’ he says. “That tends to produce populist sentiment.’’

Also joining the show is Bloomberg’s Katherine Greifeld, who discusses the recent drop in bond yields and what’s arguably the most-boring foreign-exchange market since 1976.


To contact the editor responsible for this story: Topher Forhecz at tforhecz@bloomberg.net, David Rovella

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