I'm not sure i really know what i'm talking about! It's just something i am quite interested in, so i've spent a bunch of time reading about it. I don't know if my ideas are correct or not - there is still a lot of debate amongst journalists and academics who know far more than i do.
Neoliberal is a term that is used to refer to politicians and economists who believe in liberal capitalism. It's associated with an embrace of free markets, free trade, no taxes, no tariffs, globalization, open borders, privatization, decreased regulations, decreased government spending, that sort of thing. It was a popular philosophy under Reagan and Bush, but even continued to some degree under Clinton with NAFTA. The basic idea is that the market is implicitly fair and democratic, so it should always be able to work itself out.
I think the first real pushback to neoliberalism in America happened in 1999 with the WTO protests in Seattle. Then the pushback hit the mainstream with the Global Financial Crisis (2007/2008) and Occupy Wall Street (2011). That was a wake-up call for both the right and the left that these free market ideals had worked out very well for the top half of society (and for some developing countries like China), but not so well for the bottom half.
Neoliberal is a term that is used to refer to politicians and economists who believe in liberal capitalism. It's associated with an embrace of free markets, free trade, no taxes, no tariffs, globalization, open borders, privatization, decreased regulations, decreased government spending, that sort of thing. It was a popular philosophy under Reagan and Bush, but even continued to some degree under Clinton with NAFTA. The basic idea is that the market is implicitly fair and democratic, so it should always be able to work itself out.
I think the first real pushback to neoliberalism in America happened in 1999 with the WTO protests in Seattle. Then the pushback hit the mainstream with the Global Financial Crisis (2007/2008) and Occupy Wall Street (2011). That was a wake-up call for both the right and the left that these free market ideals had worked out very well for the top half of society (and for some developing countries like China), but not so well for the bottom half.
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