Do as we said, not as we do
The speed with which the free market fundamentalists in Washington have changed their tune to begin nationalizing banks and insurance companies is quite fascinating.
This article details how that reversal is playing abroad, particulrly in countries where neoliberalism had been applied with a stern hand, such as South Korea:
Korea has just been reclassified as "developed" rather than "advanced emerging," so maybe now their example should be heralded a bit more.
This is the kind of "shock" that provides the blank slate Naomi Klein theorizes about, as discussed here months ago, it will be interesting to see what is reconstructed in US markets in this regard. (Klein has already written about the free market fundamentalism of both major candidates).
The speed with which the free market fundamentalists in Washington have changed their tune to begin nationalizing banks and insurance companies is quite fascinating.
This article details how that reversal is playing abroad, particulrly in countries where neoliberalism had been applied with a stern hand, such as South Korea:
" When the I.M.F. pledged $20 billion to help South Korea survive the Asian financial crisis of the late 1990s, one of the conditions it imposed was that the Korean government allow ailing banks and other companies to collapse rather than bail them out, recalled Yung Chul Park, a professor of economics at Korea University in Seoul, who was deeply involved in the negotiations with the I.M.F.
While Mr. Park says the current crisis is different — it is global rather than limited to one region — “Washington is following a different script this time.”
“I understand why they do it,” he added. “But they’ve lost credibility to some extent in pushing for opening up overseas markets to foreign competition and liberalizing economies.”
The ramifications of the rescue of A.I.G. will be felt for years within the United States, too."
Korea has just been reclassified as "developed" rather than "advanced emerging," so maybe now their example should be heralded a bit more.
This is the kind of "shock" that provides the blank slate Naomi Klein theorizes about, as discussed here months ago, it will be interesting to see what is reconstructed in US markets in this regard. (Klein has already written about the free market fundamentalism of both major candidates).
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