Blog 2 67 Reviewing Joyce Nelson By-passing Dystopia

Blog 2 67 Reviewing Joyce Nelson:  By-passing Dystopia, Hope-filled challenges to corporate rule.  Further quotes:

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


"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 the major focus is 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 money creation 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'... "

Reply:  "Actually, there is a 'magic money tree"' and the financial sector has benefited greatly from  its shakedown over the last nine years."

She is referring to the so-called "Quantitative Easing (QE)", by which governments of Britain, America, EU, Canada, bailed out  their private banks after the 2008 "crash" with trillions of dollars.of central bank-created money.  on the mistaken premise that this would stimulate the economy as it "trickled down". In fact, it had no evident effect on the real economy. Instead  (quoting again) "it went into tax havens and private vaults, after being used by the banksters and their corporate cronies for stock buybacks, paying down loans, buying real-estate, and doing lots of mergers and acquisitions"

But she goes on (quoting The Guardian first) to another use of "QE".

"Ah idea that is gaining traction is that monetary and fiscal policy could work together to deliver 'monetary financing'. Under this proposal  new money would be created by the Bank [Bank of England] as with QE, but instead would be spent into the economy by the government to boost investment, employment and incomes. It's an idea know as "People's QE." 

She goes  on to look back - at previous successes that point to such an alternative use of government money-creation to benefit the whole society
(Canada, North Dakota, Ecuador), and forward to, current discussions and proposals, such as Switzerland) . 

If that sounds encouraging, it is. It's a signpost on the road to  bypassing dystopia,  And that what this book is all about!