1 Nov 2010 01:21
Re: Latest Reagan Revolution Price Tag: A $313 Billion Wage Cut
me: > so a better name [than Reaganism for neoliberalism] would be Volckerism, after the Carter appointee. In the US, the neoliberal policy revolution started in August of 1979, with Volcker's resistible rise to run the Federal Reserve.< CB: > Reagan and his minions established many more aspects of > Reaganism than Volcker's interest rate hike. Even economically, > Volcker didn't do "supply-side" and deficit hawk cuts of welfare. But > critical in Reaganism is the whole political, cultural and ideological > change. Volcker played a relatively small role in the whole of > Reaganism compared to Reagan. As I said, I didn't want to name neoliberalism after any individual. In terms of what I said before, "Volckerism" is clearly inadequate. But Volcker's ascent does mark a turning-point in US government policy (and one that helped Reagan win in 1980). For those who emphasize events happening "behind the scenes," he rose due to a "hidden election" representing a mobilization of financiers against William Miller, the previous Fed Chair, who was seen as "soft on inflation." (Gerald Epstein has an article on this.) I'd instead blame the overt debates within the capitalist class about how to deal with the low profit rates, low real interest rates, and stagflation of the 1970s. If we have to name neoliberalism after anyone, it would be even better to name it after Pinochet or Milton the F, but his type of policies didn't take hold outside of Chile for awhile. > The effort to make Carter as responsible for Reaganism as Reagan in(Continue reading)
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