Few bright ideas illuminate the end of the neoliberal era
An era of laissez-faire ideas prevailing has ended. Most commentators consider it to have lasted 30 years, since those dinosaurs Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher roamed the earth.
http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/few-bright-ideas-illuminate-the-end-of-the-neoliberal-era-20090515-b603.html
Do you agree that it has ended? What does that mean for the public sector in general ... and for your own work? In the second part of the next class we will be talking much more about this
John Casey
One would hope and imagine that the global meltdown of so many economies would cause a little soul-searching and consideration of past and present economic practices. And while there is evidence such discussions are under way, for many, there appears to be a strong pull toward old practices and an unwillingness to consider whether the system itself is flawed rather than the problem being isolated in one small market sector.
ReplyDeleteThe Economist article in John Casey’s earlier post, “A New Pecking Order,” discusses what it calls competing capitalisms, the differences between Anglo-Saxon (read US and UK) and continental European approaches to public and private sector models and “what sort of economy works best in the modern world.”
Surprisingly, the brief article ends with an endorsement of the Anglo-Saxon model (more of what we’ve seen) but with a warning that “getting regulation right matters as much as freeing up markets.”
Further evidence of the extent to debate is the May 16, 2009, New York Times article “It’s No Tine to Stop This Train,” by economist Alan Blinder. In it he warns of the dangers of repeating the mistakes of the first depression by stopping the reforms too quickly—something many Obama critics are calling for.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/17/business/economy/17view.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=no%20time&st=Search
Blinder states, “On the fiscal side, many of President Obama’s critics are complaining vociferously about the huge federal budget deficits. Try to ignore, if you can, the sheer hypocrisy of many Congressional Republicans who, having never uttered a peep about the huge deficits under George W. Bush, are suddenly models of budget probity. But whatever the motives, the worries of today’s deficit hawks sound eerily reminiscent of Roosevelt in 1936 and 1937.”
I’m not so sure I can hear that death knell…
Carol Starmack
Great job, Carol, though we may be entering a time that defies past models. Much more money has serve to muzzle elected officials on both sides of the fence. Change campaign laws, eliminate PACs, ban advertising, level the political playing field. We're in a time when elections are bought.
ReplyDelete