Winners and Losers of this 4T

[Eric the Green]

(09-05-2020, 01:12 PM)sbarrera Wrote:

(09-05-2020, 10:01 AM)David Horn Wrote:

(09-04-2020, 02:05 PM)Eric the Green Wrote: First of all, though, Democrats are not neo-liberals. That is the Republican program, completely. The worst you can say about Democrats in that regard is that they were humbled by Republican neo-liberal (aka Reaganomics, free-market fundamentalist) power, and compromised with it too much (e.g. repeal of Glass-Steagall). But they didn't go all the way. Wages were raised and many regulations were still in place. By the way, calling Democrats "neo-liberals" is as inaccurate as calling any Republican a "populist."...

Sorry, but the original neoliberals were the Clintonites responding to the excessive rightward drift of the Reaganites.  Credit Robert Rubin and Lawrence Summers as the progenitors of this DINO economic policy.  Essentially, to maintain power they sided with the big banks and big business on economics, while advocating progressive policies in the social sphere.  For the poor, especially people of color, it was smile, shake their hands and steal their wallets.

That was my understanding too. That's why I call Biden a neoliberal. Primary voters rejected the more progressive alternative represented by Sanders and Warren.

Nope. The "excessive rightward drift of the Reaganites" WAS Neoliberalism. The response by the Clintonites was the New Democrats. I point out that Clinton kept some of the old Keynesian economics and added neoliberalism to it. Thus for example, he got passed an increase in the minimum wage which had been flat since Reagan took office. Biden is part of this tradition, but he may be moving away from it and toward the progressives, taking lots of advice from Warren and adopting platform planks from Sanders. Details of Biden's plans here:
https://joebiden.com/joes-vision/#

Neoliberalism is the creation of economists like Hayek, Mises and Friedman and the writer Ayn Rand and others like the ironically-named Janes Buchanan. The politicians that put it into effect were primarily Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher. See Monbiot above, he is the best expert.





Please don't ignore my corrections of language. Correct terms are important. Thanks.

Clinton was not a neo-liberal, he was a New Democrat. Neo-liberal is uncompromising conservative economics. Its name comes from the original classical "liberal economics" which means the market freed from the government. The New Democrats just realized that the neo-liberals were too powerful to defeat, so compromise was needed. So although Bill Clinton campaigned aggressively and outspokenly against trickle-down economics, and acted to raise wages and provide the earned income credit and restore some regulations, he also got rid of welfare as we know it and took down Glass Steagall in concert with those who had the power in the government, the neo-liberals like Gingrich. 

Neoliberalism is the original Reagan policy. Clinton was compromise with it. I myself could not support it and moved to the Green Party. As an opponent of neoliberalism, I voted for Bernie Sanders in the primary (having reregistered Democrat this year). I will vote for Joe Biden, because Trump is a clear and present danger to everything, and Biden is at least half a loaf, and maybe more if the people push him just as Trump says we will. Although I am on the left, and according to questionnaires probably further left than anyone here, I am practical about what we can get in a USA that is so thoroughly deceived and decomposed as it is today.

"As neoliberal policies (cutting taxes for the rich, privatising state assets, deregulating labour, reducing social security) began to bite from the 1980s onwards, growth rates started to fall and unemployment to rise. The remarkable growth in the rich nations during the 50s, 60s and 70s was made possible by the destruction of the wealth and power of the elite, as a result of the 1930s depression and the second world war. Their embarrassment gave the other 99% an unprecedented chance to demand redistribution, state spending and social security, all of which stimulated demand. Neoliberalism was an attempt to turn back these reforms. Lavishly funded by millionaires, its advocates were amazingly successful – politically. Economically they flopped."
--- George Monbiot
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...ic-failure

Neoliberalism was instituted in the 1980s, NOT the 1990s. The New Democrats compromised with it and continued it but didn't start it.

Republican trickle-down economics is a failure wherever it is tried:
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/evidence-..._b_3644152

Bill Clinton, although a neo-liberal on trade, welfare reform and financial deregulation, also had a good keynesian-liberal record in other respects. That's why I don't call him and his successors like his wife "neo-liberals" per se. The Center for American Progress described this record this way: "a broad mix of tax relief, wage increases, access to health and child care, and protections for working families helped grow and strengthen the middle class"-- and provided details.
https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/...ton-years/