Revolt Against the Posh Boys: Right and Left Converge in Revolt Against Elites

(Bloomberg View) - Google, according to Rupert Murdoch, has overawed the "posh boys in Downing Street" and elsewhere. The News Corp. chairman was responding last week to news that the U.S.-based Internet giant would pay Britain the measly sum of $185 million in underpaid taxes. Murdoch continued, "Google has cleverly planted dozens of their people in White House, Downing St, other governments. Most brilliant new lobbying effort yet."

While Murdoch sounded like Noam Chomsky, Donald Trump's recent screeds against hedge fund managers have seemed to invoke his inner Bernie Sanders. Multibillionaires are just the latest individuals to add their voices to a worldwide chorus condemning hyper-connected posh boys. They confirm that the hoary distinction between the left and the right needs to be updated.

Marine Le Pen, ostensibly on the far right, attacks France’s Socialist government for pampering "globalized elites at the expense of the people." She vows to replace the "neo-liberal" French establishment with an aggressively interventionist state. Nationalization of banks is on the agenda of far-right governments in Hungary and Poland, along with more predictable anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant policies.

The blending of left- and right-wing programs is hardly novel. The Nazis proudly called themselves National Socialists. And Mussolini, who started out as a diehard socialist, didn't give up his core belief in state control even after he found a more effective way of rousing disaffected Italian masses. From the late 19th century onwards, political movements and parties on the right have combined xenophobic patriotism and economic nationalism.

In all cases, they've tried to exploit widespread distress caused by uneven economic growth and political dysfunction.  Read more.