Neoliberalism in a Time of Crisis

“Crises are an inherent feature of capitalism. Marx knew this only too well; so did Keynes and Minsky. Neoliberals, on the other hand, tend to believe that it is government action that causes market turbulence and economic instability.”  This is the opening salvo from a new one-pager by C. J. Polychroniou that takes on neoliberal doctrine in light of the global financial crisis (Read it here.)

Polychroniou also has a recent working paper that looks at the potential dissolution of the Eurozone as a failure of neoliberalism:

…the fact that EU’s leaders are having a difficult time getting a handle on the Greek problem and providing a comprehensive solution for the eurozone debt crisis is due to the very constraints of the neoliberal economic regime in which policymakers operate, and helped to create, and much less a question of political incompetence. The architecture of eurozone governance, combined with the asymmetries of European integration, severely limit quick, far-reaching political decisions for addressing the debt crisis, including Europe’s banking system that remains vastly undercapitalized.

The paper includes a detailed and compelling narrative of how Greece got to where it is today.  (Read the working paper here.)