Brave new world, not sclerotic neoliberalism

A SPANISH monastery where a Habsburg-era king retreated after his failure to see through his dream of building a strong, united and triumphant Europe was the proper setting for a mid-June speech from a European intellectual that more or less covered that ancient theme of building a united and competitive Europe from a 21st-century perspective. That speech was from Mario Draghi, former prime minister of Italy and former president of the European Central Bank (ECB), and it was probably heard across the inner sanctums of power in both the United States and China.

Diminished economically and reduced to a spectator in the fierce economic rivalry between the United States and China, Europe should now craft its own "foreign economic policy" to fight unfair trade practices, compete for economic primacy and grow from within, Mr. Draghi said. The specific strategies proposed in his monastery speech were unthinkable during the long, unchallenged reign of globalization and neoliberalism when the mere mention of the word "protectionism" was verboten.