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Martin Wolf is the Chief Economics Commentator at the Financial Times (FT). FT readers will know him as an open-minded liberal, in the European sense of the word, meaning moderately for free markets. His latest book The Crisis of Democratic Capitalism is his attempt to make sense of the political and economic developments since the global financial crisis, in particular the rise of a right-wing populism and the return of an activist state. Wolf, s point of departure is that ‘democratic capitalism, is in a fundamental crisis. As the Introduction clarifies, the book is motivated by the Jewish background of Wolf, whose parents barely escaped the Nazis, while most of their family perished. It is this concern about authoritarianism and racism that shapes the background of the book. This translates into an intense aversion against the populist right, in particular Donald Trump.

The book is organized into ten chapters that discuss …