Neoliberalism and the Road to Inequality and Stagnation: A Chronicle Foretold

Tom Palley has made a significant contribution to understanding the meaning and significance of neoliberalism. This chronicle collects some of his best work to explain how global adoption of neoliberal policies over the past thirty years has increased income inequality and created tendencies to stagnation. The book explores the impact of neoliberal policies on the US, Europe, and global economy. It shows how the 2008 financial crisis and Great Recession were predictable outcomes of the neoliberal policy experiment, as is the emergence of global "race to the bottom" competition. It also explains how Europe's economic fragility is connected to the neoliberal design of the euro. Neoliberalism creates a particular variety of capitalism. It is a political choice. That means society is tacitly engaged in a "war of ideas", the outcome of which will determine our future political economic trajectory. Students, scholars, and readers in economics and political science will find this rich collection illuminating in their efforts to better understand the policy matrix that currently dominates the political landscape.