Society: We live in the era of neo -liberalism

Author: Lu Yan

The term neo -liberalism, as a summary of the capitalist nature of globalization, started in Latin America. It has become popular in the English world since the New Century. By 2008, the financial crisis broke out and evolved into a global economy in developed countries.During the recession, this word became a common term for public space.

The most significant of this is the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which has always been the top critic of the new liberal discussion, has also used this word in recent years, and it seems to take its critical significance seriously, which reflects the international internationallyChanges in the situation of public opinion.

Washington Consensus on the front scene behind the stage

According to British economist Alfredo Saad Filho recognition, in academic literature and even public opinion, the word neo-liberalism can be understood from four levels: one is the theory of economics, represented by the Austrian-Chicago school; the second is economic policy, which constitutes a constituentThe famous Washington Consensus;

The third is the class struggle strategy of monopoly capital. The representatives are the actions of right -wing systems such as the United States and the British Mrs. Dazor Government.Hua, temporary industrialization.

The clearest of these is the economic policy.The so -called Washington Consensus refers to the three generations of policy creeds of Washington, such as the US Treasury, IMF, the World Bank, etc., and its vassal of the world's vassal, namely: market and foreign trade liberalization that has been implemented in the early 1980s, and began in the late 1980s.The privatization of public asset resources, as well as the liberalization of finance (especially foreign finance) launched in the early 1990s.

The core of these creeds is marketing of marketing, not only this is the foundation of its economics, but even the official IMF official document is self -proud.The most straightforward expression of this position is the world economic outlook for the fall of 2000. This document is a summary of the globalization process in the previous 20 years, but these 20 years are the loss of world development.Reform (this was the theme of the World Bank at the time).

Among them, the shock depression of the Soviet Group's country was the worst, and East Asia, which was originally a miracle, was the most noticeable to fall into the financial and economic crisis.

IMF's interpretation of the East Asian crisis is as always marketing of marketing, asserting that the crisis is purely caused by the internal system that violates market principles, so -called tape capitalism.This explanation and its corresponding policy requirements even caused internal arguments and division of Washington's establishment. Joseph Stiglitz, then chief economist at the World Bank, severely criticized the IMF ignoring the crisis.

It also criticized even from the famous Jeffrey Sachs, but this king was the chief consultant of the former Soviet Group's national shock therapy reform.However, these critics have always been unable to shake new liberal creeds and systems. At that time, Sachs was already marginalized, and Stiglitz was also lifted in the world bank in advance under the operation of the system and was swept out of the ground.

The operation logic of global capitalism

The above IMF and even the overall Washington -based marketing of the marketing of the market -based religion is not purely aware of or faith, but it is even more realistic interest. Therefore, it will not tolerate any heresy challenges.

In fact, from the end of the East Asian crisis at the end of the last century, one statement has become the favorite of the critics of the system.World capitalism has deep logic consistency.

The three generations of policy creeds in Washington Consensus are at all to make all asset resources into financial transactions to facilitate capital flow to pursue the highest level of profit returns. This is to systematically promote economic finance.Therefore, since the beginning of the 1990s, finance has become the systemic operating logic of contemporary capitalism, while financial hegemony has occupied the core position of the contemporary capitalist system.

Financial melting, that is, the increasing capital of capital to speculation, is bound to squeeze long -term investment.This extrusion effect will at the same time exacerbate the gap between income distribution and curb consumer growth.As a result, contemporary capitalism has the inherent tendency of insufficient systemic demand, which triggers an economic crisis.At the same time, speculation focuses on distributing profits rather than creating profits, so that the contemporary capitalist economic crisis always erupts in the financial field in the financial field with financial instability and even financial collapse.

In short, the logic of finance is to lead to its own unsustainable.

However, the weirdness is that in reality, before the outbreak of the financial crisis in 2007/08, the finance did lasted for a long time.Explaining this paradox is plunder accumulation, that is, to lower the cost of productive resources by covering the global new liberal reform and offset the negative role of lack of productive investment on capital accumulation.

The main foundation of capital accumulation in the era of globalization is to incorporate the original productive resources that are not the capitalist world system, including financial plundering, and absorbing the labor force of developing countries.The latter accumulation approach is manifested by the expansion speed of labor supply in the world market faster than the expansion speed of labor demand, constituting the so -called western competition (that is, developing countries to reduce the rights of workers to maintain industrial competitiveness).

Is it free to choose or no choice?

Recognizing that neo -liberalism is the systemic operation logic of world capitalism, or at least to a considerable extent.The construction model construction of various countries is necessary.Three of them are particularly worthy of investigation.

(1) IMF recognizes the loss of world development in the first 20 years of globalization in the world economic outlook of 2000, especially the shock depression of the former Soviet Union's country is far from the expectations and commitments of policy settings.This kind of admitting negligence appeared from the ups and downs of the actual economic situation. By 2016, the flagship publication finance and development of the "new liberalism has excessive sales?是 Summary of the article can be said to reach the peak.

However, this recognition is not only very limited, but it may even be to cover the more fundamental new marketing of marketing.Since the new century, policies and economic research themes related to the Washington system, such as the financial legal system foundation, market and constitutional government, and colonial system, after all, it is also to serve the systemic operating logic of the above -mentioned capital accumulation.

(2) For developing countries, once (abandoning the revolution) determine the reform and opening up, docking, and incorporation into world capitalism, it is not possible to not face the compulsoryness of the new liberalism of the latter's systemic operation logic.Whether the simple policy creed can, whether it is selected.Therefore, even though it is independent of China, the entire reform and opening up of the reform and opening up today is always dominated by the competition between the two forces of the world's compulsory and seeking independent development.

As far as economic level is concerned, before 2008, the Foxconn model (labor -intensive and low wage model) and the golden age model (capital deepening and high wage model) competition; after 2008, financial speculation and productivity are dominated byInvestment and innovation competition.

(3) The above explanation of neo -liberalism is only focused on its actual extent, that is, policy credo and its implementation, and does not involve its ideological or ideological orientation.However, since neo -liberalism has systemic significance in contemporary world capitalism, its ideological connotation is often packaged as universal value as a political encouragement force, which is very charming.

According to the above discussion, the implementation of neo -liberalism is often far from the value itself. The so -called universal value politics is actually synonymous with the loss of social development and humanitarian disasters.And it is this defect that makes politicians organic organic and extravagant.Moral politics, shirk responsibility after success, saying that losing and disaster is a reality, not an ideological fault.

I still remember that the Soviet Group collapsed in the early 1990s, and the universal value politics reached its peak. At that time, the idealist reform parties in Poland, Czech Republic, Russia and other Washington Consensus had unlimited trust, and to promote the reform of shock therapy at the price.

Jeffrey Sachs, as their teachers and advisers, understands much more, clearly states that these policies have seriously lacked the foundation of economic foundation and the consequences of being able to implement them are serious;Reform was originally deprived of their rights, so they had to implement the reform to an irreversible point while they had not realized it.

The author is a professor at the Department of Economics at the University of London