Why this year's Economics Nobel winner fears the China trade war

Chinese officials described the Trump administration's posturing on trade as the product of an "anxiety disorder".

WASHINGTON: When Paul Romer sees the world’s two biggest economies locked in a trade war, his thoughts turn to robots.

Business leaders and investors worry that tariff barriers thrown up by the US and China will block the global flow of goods and services. Romer, who won this year’s Nobel economics prize for his work on how technology drives growth, is more concerned about the flow of ideas. He sees the risk of a different kind of protectionism: one in which Washington and Beijing fight to control fields like artificial intelligence – claiming ownership of breakthroughs which could benefit all humanity, if only they were set free.