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This was the year populists made real efforts to challenge the economic consensus that has set the terms of the global economy for decades.

How are they doing?

It’s a mixed bag. President Trump’s trade war achieved some gains but has yet to deliver the type of change many populists have called for, like a rollback of China’s interventionist industrial policies. Britain’s plan to leave the European Union has not made it through the country’s Parliament. But Italy’s populist government this week reached a fiscal deal with the European Union that appears to be a slight win for the country. And some of the populists’ economic ideas appear to be gaining ground.

Mr. Trump’s trade wars.

Populists have long contended that the global system of free trade hurt the livelihoods of many American workers. Mr. Trump’s trade war showed that it was not easy to force big changes in the arrangements that underpin the flow of trillions of dollars of trade.