a reply to:
Michielli
Let's have some context.
The West had just won the Cold War. The Soviets had not just backed down but fragmented into a hundred little pieces which were being transformed by
Chicago economists.
Economic liberalism, the free market, was all. From Friedman, Reagan and Thatcher, through liberals like Timothy Garton Ash, all the way down to
enthusiastic junior high economics students, free marketeers celebrated the triumph of capitalism.
Francis Fukuyama published "The End of History". No more proxy wars. No more huge spending on the military distorting the market. Even the Chinese
government was sitting down and getting advice from Milton Friedman. This was a new phase in the human story, driven by the invisible hand of the
market.
And, Friedrich Hayek told us, the free market guarantees freedom.
US led globalisation, led by Reagan in the 1980s, accelerated. Trade deals, tariff reform, all designed to help capital flow between markets with new
transnational authorities to keep a light hand on the tiller.
A few people got overexcited and talked of supranational governments. They were a very small minority.
Another minority were the far left, who were the only ones raising a warning flag and questioning this economic New World Order. They saw how it
could lead to totalitarianism. They saw how it could increase inequality.
The rest of us saw a decade of unbelievable economic growth and prosperity.
Spin it into some machiavellian masterplan if you like. Fact is, they were celebrating the very economic momentum that conservatives believe in
today.
edit on 22-11-2020 by Whodathunkdatcheese because: (no reason given)