Money
Power
Blog 68 More from Nelson: Bypassing Dystopia
Remember? Dystopia means a rotten place, like Earth at the beginning of 2019. For most earthlings, something ain't working.
From the Introduction
Preparing a series of speaking engagements, she writes, allowed her
"to crystallize my thinking about an economic orthodoxy that has ruled most of the world for the past 45 years. Sometimes called 'trickle-down theory' or 'free market capitalism', neoliberalism has fostered an agenda that (to my way of thinking) has 12 predominant aspects. Think of them as 'the dirty dozen'.
Deregulation
Open borders for Capital
Small government/big state
Tax cuts for multinational corporations
Austerity budgets
Union-busting
Privatization of public assets
Corporate rights (or 'free trade') deals
Tax havens
No limits to growth
Central Bank 'independence'
Privatization of the money-creation function (introduction p1
'Fostered since 1973 by the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), and a variety of corporate think tanks, the neoliberal economic agenda has created environmental destruction and massive wealth inequality across the planet and is finally being challenged, including by economists themselves."
The book looks back at this process and especially its results, but provides a major focus on the emerging new understanding of how our world ought to be seen. must be seen - if we are to survive. It is a great reassurance to read of alternatives already in place and emerging.
Here's an example in separate quotations from Chapter 3, "Sordid Tales of the 'Magic Money Tree'." The underlying topic is the creation of money by governments after the 2008 "financial crisis".
"While promising to put more money into the National Health Service, (2017) British PM, Theresa May answered that "there isn't a magic money tree that we can shake that suddenly provides everything…"
Well, it seems she was “mistaken”. After the 2008 financial emergency Britain created and issued 435 billion pounds sterling,
US Federal Reserve Bank,, $4l3 trillion
European Central Bank 1.34 trillion euros
“and when you add in QE by other banks - like Switzerland’s, Sweden’s and Canada’s, the figure comes to about $20 trillion as of the Autumn of 2017.”
“Tony Pugh, The Guardian:
‘Quantitative easing as practised by the Bank of England and the US Federal Reserve, merely flooded the financial sector with money to the benefit of bondholders…this did not create a so-called wealth effect, with a trickle-down to the real producing economy.’
“But the horrible thought arises: maybe QE was never actually meant to revive the economy. Maybe the “magic money tree” always was meant to reward only the super-rich (at the big banks and hedge funds). Maybe QE “trickle-down” promises were never more than neoliberal PR meant to hoodwink the economically illiterate rabble.”
Thought-provoking?
