Neoliberalism and its Discontents

• Neoliberalism is a policy model that emphasizes the value of free-market competition
• The high point of global Keynesianism was from the mid-1940s to the early 1970s
• Western and Some Asian countries like Japan accepted the rise in prices during this time
• Stagflation is a phenomenon where economic growth slows down, but inflation and unemployment rise up
• Economists Friedrich Hayek and Milton Friedman claimed that government pouring money into the economy had caused inflation
• From the 1980s, Neoliberalism became the codified strategy of the United States Treasury Department and the World Trade Organization (WTO)
• The policies of Neoliberalism came to be called the Washington Consensus, dominating the global economy from the 1980s to the early 2000s
• Key aspects of Neoliberalism include minimal government spending and privatization of government-controlled services like water, electricity, communications, and transport
• Despite initial success, the defects of Neoliberalism are still palpable, as seen in post-communist Russia
• In the early 1970s, oil prices rose sharply due to the "oil embargo" of the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC)
• Stock Markets crashed in 1973-1974 after the United States stopped linking the dollar to gold
• Friedman emerged with a new form of economic model labeled Neoliberalism
• US President Ronald Reagan and British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher advocated for Neoliberalism