Attention Economy


Friday, February 17, 2023

Neoliberalism, Democracy, and Economics

Is the Marriage Between Democracy and Capitalism on the Rocks?
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/15/books/review/books-democracy-capitalism.html
 
US historian Gary Gerstle explains how globalization helped entrench neoliberalism while also bringing about its demise
https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/fandd/issues/Series/Analytical-Series/cafe-econ-a-new-political-order-emerges
 
Rescuing Economics from Neoliberalism
https://www.bostonreview.net/articles/dani-rodrik-rescuing-economics-neoliberalism/
Related:
https://www.theguardian.com/news/2017/nov/14/the-fatal-flaw-of-neoliberalism-its-bad-economics
Harvard’s Dani Rodrik:
The roots of such behavior lie deep in the culture of the economics profession. But one important motive is the zeal to display the profession’s crown jewels – market efficiency, the invisible hand, comparative advantage – in untarnished form, and to shield them from attack by self-interested barbarians, namely the protectionists. Unfortunately, these economists typically ignore the barbarians on the other side of the issue – financiers and multinational corporations whose motives are no purer and who are all too ready to hijack these ideas for their own benefit.
As a result, economists’ contributions to public debate are often biased in one direction, in favor of more trade, more finance and less government. That is why economists have developed a reputation as cheerleaders for neoliberalism, even if mainstream economics is very far from a paean to laissez-faire. The economists who let their enthusiasm for free markets run wild are in fact not being true to their own discipline.