Neoliberalism: the idea that swallowed the world

from The Guardian

Last summer (2016), researchers at the International Monetary Fund settled a long and bitter debate over “neoliberalism”: they admitted it exists. Three senior economists at the IMF, an organisation not known for its incaution, published a paper questioning the benefits of neoliberalism. In so doing, they helped put to rest the idea that the word is nothing more than a political slur, or a term without any analytic power. The paper gently called out a “neoliberal agenda” for pushing deregulation on economies around the world, for forcing open national markets to trade and capital, and for demanding that governments shrink themselves via austerity or privatisation...

When the idea occurred to Friedrich Hayek in 1936, he knew, with the conviction of a “sudden illumination”...

That Hayek is considered the grandfather of neoliberalism...

To anyone who would listen, Thatcher lionised Hayek, promising to bring together his free-market philosophy with a revival of Victorian values: family, community, hard work...

read more here