Brain Lucey: In a populist world, what could go wrong?

Looking back at 2016, it is hard not to think that there were tectonic shifts in the western economic and political system, even allowing for the tendency of us all to overweight recent events.

Ever since Cicero, politicians have been complaining “o tempora, o mores”, and we should have a healthy suspicion of the words, “this time is different”. But maybe this time is, in fact, different.

We have seen, in Brexit and in Trump, the rise of populism.