Monday, May 2, 2016

Bill Mitchell — The metamorphosis of the IMF as a neo-liberal attack dog

Today, we consider the role way in which the IMF reinvented itself after its raison d’être was terminated with the collapse of the Bretton Woods fixed exchange rate system. The next part of the story will examine the growing US influence on the IMF and the way it used the IMF to further its ‘free market’ agenda on a global scale.…
Bill Mitchell – billy blog
The metamorphosis of the IMF as a neo-liberal attack dog
Bill Mitchell | Professor in Economics and Director of the Centre of Full Employment and Equity (CofFEE), at University of Newcastle, NSW, Australia

16 comments:

Matt Franko said...

The metaphor of 'attack dog' implies a plan/training/conspiracy...

I dont see how any of this helps... we already know its a conglomeration of bad policies... do we need to torture ourselves with it?

Matt Franko said...

"How the Left was led down the path of ignorance is a testament to both the ingenuity of the Right and the machinery it set up to regain control of the policy agenda and the increasing splintering of the Left into peripheral ‘post modern’ deconstructions. Somehow, class struggle was no longer central to a lot of Leftist thinking and, in its place was a massive investment of time and energy into gender, race and sexuality type issues."

Oh brother! GLTB advocacy is now part of the "neo-liberal conspiracy!!!"

Come the F on already with this stuff.... this is right out of Alex Jones....

Peter Pan said...

So why did the 'left' stop talking about class?

Tom Hickey said...

Scared off by the right charging them with "fomenting class warfare," with the implication of being Marxist-Leninist-Maoist totalitarian communists, or at least pinko socialists.This has worked pretty well against the left in the US for a long time. It worked because the majority of people bought into the thick media propaganda, just like a lot of otherwise intelligent people supported Joe McCarthy. "Monsters under the bed" works.

Matt Franko said...

Maybe because the economic system works for probably 95% of the people so those who gained access to the provisioning system were fine economically so they moved on and started in on other purely social issues...

The issues are socio-economic... so if the economic issues are non-problematic (for 95%), the socio-economic justice cohort moves on to those purely social issues...

Matt Franko said...

Oh c'mon Tom we are drowning in cheese and oil and wtf....

How can you say there is a problem with the economic system for the 95%?

What are you going to expect people to get all spun up because they are driving a Toyota and somebody else is driving the Lexus? c'mon...

Tom Hickey said...

How can you say there is a problem with the economic system for the 95%?

What are you going to expect people to get all spun up because they are driving a Toyota and somebody else is driving the Lexus?


Gallup says otherwise:

GALLUP DAILY

REAL UNEMPLOYMENT — 9.8, +0.1

GALLUP GOOD JOBS — 45.0%, +0.1

ENGAGED AT WORK — 30.3%, -0.2

ECONOMIC CONFIDENCE — -15, -3


Gallup — Satisfaction With the United States

Take a lot at the rest of the numbers and tell me where you find 95%.

Peter Pan said...

"Let them eat cheese." - Matt Franko, 2016

Scared off by the right charging them with "fomenting class warfare," with the implication of being Marxist-Leninist-Maoist totalitarian communists, or at least pinko socialists.

These social justice warriors are not shy about their Marxist roots, although one wonders if they have any conception of Marxism beyond the Frankfurt school version. People from across the political spectrum are fed up with their antics.

If they were hoping to win a popularity contest, they've failed.

Ignacio said...

Matt lives in an alternative reality where a lot of people is not one pay check/health issue away from poverty.

Matt Franko said...

Yeah but while that flow is there they are less motivated to advocate for big changes...

The problem is a marginal one, or at least the general perception is that the problems are marginal .... solution does not easily present itself as a complete "do over"... you have 90% employment so we have a 10% problem..

So if we are going all around advocating for a complete do over, we tend to look foolish and nobody will listen to us...

We have to be more introspective about why no one listens to us... just blaming it all on a "neo=liberal conspiracy!" isnt working...

Peter Pan said...

MMT prescriptions fall within the 'reforming capitalism' realm. I agree that trying to reform capitalism is foolish.

Matt Franko said...

Bob, Capitalism was coined by Marx 200 years ago under the metals... N/A....

System we have now is being operated by people still within that metallic system paradigm so its not optimum results we are seeing...

Peter Pan said...

What are you talking about? Optimum results are for the 1% as that is where the incentives are driving us. You really believe that tinkering with fiscal policy will change what's baked into the system?

The incentives created by the profit motive, wage contracts and private ownership are as relevant today as they were in Marx's time. To paraphrase MC Hammer: "You (MMT) can't touch this."

Tom Hickey said...

Who coined the word capitalism and what did he/she mean by it?

Not Marx.

Calgacus said...

Matt:The problem is a marginal one, or at least the general perception is that the problems are marginal

Trump & Sanders amply refute this - a very clear majority says that the problems are not marginal.

.... solution does not easily present itself as a complete "do over"...
Agreed.

you have 90% employment so we have a 10% problem..

That's like saying that breathing easily 90% of the time is "a 10% problem". These 10% are used to discipline the other 89% to obey the 1%.


Bob:You really believe that tinkering with fiscal policy will change what's baked into the system?

Yes, of course it can, if "tinkering with fiscal policy" means full employment at a decent wage, like an MMT JG, which completely changes "the system". Modern, abject confusion on this is like ridiculing nuclear weapons by comparison to the almighty water pistol. "The profit motive, wage contracts & private ownership" have no force as tools of oppression against this. Marxists - like Marx - used to know and say that, but while redoubling their efforts, usually against each other, they forgot their aims. The postwar era came close enough to terrify the ruling class. Hence 40+ years of neoliberal reaction and amnesia.

Outside the precincts of (mainly) MMT academe, only "the billionaire class" remembers. So the predator capitalist class deserves to rule, as do the neoclassical mouthpieces in academia, if they are the only ones to believe in themselves, to believe that what they do and say are the capital T Truth. While so many of their "opponents" wallow in the comfort of learned helplessness, insisting on the feebleness of political power even if the good guys got in, while fluffing their tranquilizing pillow of the impossibility of (social) science.

Peter Pan said...

Yes, of course it can, if "tinkering with fiscal policy" means full employment at a decent wage, like an MMT JG, which completely changes "the system".

The only way there'll be a JG is over their dead bodies - or ours. And that is a political problem.