Price Wars: How the Commodities Markets Made Our Chaotic World Author: Russell, Rupert ISBN: 9780385545853

It was 2015, in the midst of the global refugee crisis that saw over a million migrants come to Europe. Right-wing populists declared it an invasion of “barbaric, Muslim, rapist hordes of men” (AfD, Germany), “young barbarians” (Golden Dawn, Greece), “criminals, terrorists and idlers!” (National Alliance, Latvia), and “masses of young men in their twenties, with beards singing ”Allahu Akbar” ” (Party of Freedom, Holland). On the campaign trail, Trump promised to extend his wall with Mexico to the Middle East, with “a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States.” The Vote Leave campaign distributed leaflets showing Iraq, Syria and Turkey joining the EU, with a threatening arrow indicating their impending migrant invasion of Britain. In case the message wasn”t clear enough, Nigel Farage personally launched a poster campaign depicting thousands of brown-skinned people with the all-caps warning: “BREAKING POINT.” The barbarians were no longer at the gates, they had broken through. “Give us back France, damn it!” Marine Le Pen demanded. “We drink wine whenever we want!” I”m sitting in the heart of this “barbarian invasion.