Tag Archives: neoliberalism

The Mixed Economy Manifesto – Part 4

Posted on July 2, 2012 by Mitch Green | 1 comment

By Michael Hoexter, Ph.D.

[Part 1 is posted here; Part 2 is posted here; Part 3 is posted here]

The Anti-Keynes Revolt

Against the Keynesian consensus of the WWII era and afterwards, there remained marginalized economic schools that held to ideal notions about markets and remained convinced that a reliance on government was tantamount to a “Road to Serfdom” and ultimately led to Communism. The core of the neoliberal campaign, gathered around the Mt. Pelerin Society founded by economist/social philosopher Friedrich von Hayek, denied that government management of capitalism’s excesses was needed and that the price system and the market were pure, self-regulating entities which bring maximum prosperity and liberate the individual. Continue reading →

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Posted in Michael Hoexter

Tagged keynes, MMT, neoclassical economics, neoliberalism

Spain is the New Greece

Posted on April 29, 2012 by Mitch Green | 13 comments

By Marshall Auerback

Nearly one Spaniard in four is unemployed, according to data released on Friday, as the country’s economic and financial predicament prompted a government minister to talk of a “crisis of enormous proportions”.The data from the National Statistics Institute showed 367,000 people lost their jobs in the first three months of the year. At this pace, Spanish job losses are equivalent to 1 million per month in the United States. That means more than 5.6m Spaniards or 24.4 per cent of the workforce are unemployed, close to a record high set in 1994.

Spain has become the new Greece. Actually, in many respects Spain is now worse than Greece. The Spanish unemployment rate is already so high and unlike Athens, Madrid has made no headway in reducing its public debt levels (whereas the Greeks are close to running a primary fiscal surplus at which point they could leave and turn the problem back on to Brussels). Moreover, Spain has a huge private debt burden that is twice that of Greece.

Although I have warned on these pages before that Spain’s austerity program was leading the country to disaster, my reaction to this economic catastrophe has been one of amazement. Just take a look at this employment data

Spain First Quarter Unemployment: Summary (Table)
2012-04-27 07:00:00.13 GMT

1Q Quarterly Yearly
	2012	Net Change	QoQ %	Net	Change YoY%
Both Sexes
Over 16s	38,493.70	-14.5	-0.04%	-18.4	-0.05%
Active Workforce	23,072.80	-8.4	-0.04%	10.9	0.05%
Employed	17,433.20	-374.3	-2.10%	-718.5	-3.96%
Unemployed	5,639.50	365.9	6.94%	729.4	14.85%
Inactive	15,420.90	-6.1	-0.04%	-29.3	-0.19%
Activity Rate	59.94%	0.00%	n/a	0.06%	n/a
Unemployment Rate	24.44%	1.59%	n/a	3.15%	n/a
16 to 64	30,606.00	-52.5	-0.17%	-171.4	-0.56%
Activity Rate	74.87%	0.13%	n/a	0.44%	n/a
Unemployment Rate	24.59%	1.59%	n/a	3.17%	n/a
Employment Rate	56.47%	-1.09%	n/a	-2.03%	n/a

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Posted in Marshall Auerback

Tagged austerity, Eurozone, neoliberalism, piigs, spain, unemployment

“No People, No Problem”: The Baltic Tigers’ False Prophets of Austerity

Posted on December 6, 2011 by admin | Comments Off

By Jeffrey Sommers, Arunas Juska and Michael Hudson*

(Cross-posted from Counterpunch)

The Baltic states have discovered a new way to cut unemployment and cut budgets for social services: emigration. If enough people of working age are forced to leave to find work abroad, unemployment and social service budgets will both drop.

This simple mathematics explains what the algebra of austerity-plan advocates are applauding today as the “New Baltic Miracle” for Greece, Spain, and Italy to emulate. The reality, however, is a model predicated on economic shrinkage as a result of wage cuts. In the case of Latvia, this was some 30 percent for Latvian public-sector employees (euphemized as “internal devaluation”). With a set of flat taxes on employment adding up to 59% in Latvia (while property taxes are only 1%), it would seem hard indeed to present this as a success story.

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