<
https://bostonreview.net/class-inequality/robert-pollin-gerald-epstein-neoliberalism%E2%80%99s-bailout-problem>
"The most basic tenet undergirding neoliberal economics is that free market
capitalism—or at least some close approximation to it—is the only effective
framework for delivering widely shared economic well-being. On this view, only
free markets can increase productivity and average living standards while
delivering high levels of individual freedom and fair social outcomes: big
government spending and heavy regulations are simply less effective.
These neoliberal premises have dominated economic policymaking both in the
United States and around the world for the past forty years, beginning with the
elections of Margaret Thatcher in the United Kingdom and Ronald Reagan in the
States. Thatcher’s dictum that “there is no alternative” to neoliberalism
became a rallying cry, supplanting what had been, since the end of World War
II, the dominance of Keynesianism in global economic policymaking, which
instead viewed large-scale government interventions as necessary for stability
and a reasonable degree of fairness under capitalism. This neoliberal
ascendency has been undergirded by the full-throated support of the
overwhelming majority of professional economists, including such luminaries as
Nobel Laureates Milton Friedman and Robert Lucas.
In reality neoliberalism has depended on huge levels of government support for
its entire existence. The global neoliberal economic order could easily have
collapsed into a 1930s-level Great Depression multiple times over in the
absence of massive government interventions. Especially central to its survival
have been government bailouts, including emergency government spending
injections financed by borrowing—that is, deficit spending—as well as central
bank actions to prop up financial institutions and markets teetering on the
verge of ruin.
Bailouts have therefore not only repeatedly rescued neoliberal capitalism
during periods of crisis, but they have also, as a result, reinforced
neoliberalism’s most malignant tendencies. In 1978, just prior to
neoliberalism’s rise, the CEOs of the largest 350 U.S. corporations earned $1.7
million, 33 times the $51,200 earned by the average private-sector
non-supervisory worker. As of 2019 the CEOs were earning 366 times more than
the average worker, $21.3 million versus $58,200. Under neoliberalism, in other
words, the pay for big corporate U.S. CEOs increased more than ten-fold
relative to the average U.S. worker. This curious conjunction—theoretical
disdain for government alongside practical reliance on it—has amounted to
champagne socialism for big corporations, Wall Street, and the rich and
“let-them-eat-cake” capitalism for most everyone else."
Via
libramoon@pluspora.com.
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
