The Rise and Fall of the Neoliberal Order

Cambridge University’s professor of American History Gary Gerstle discusses his most recent book, about how the neoliberal order came about, why it is faltering, and the indeterminacy of what comes next.

[@lauramcconney9367]

I'm sick of people who won't call it what workers all know it to be! It is GREED OF PERSONAL PROFITS FOR THOSE THAT PRODUCE NOTHING REAL WHILE THEY SIT AT DESK AND THINK OF NEW WAYS TO TAKE FROM THOSE WHO ACTUALLY WORK FOR A LIVING!!!

[@eugeneyegambaram8994]

Well said!!!

[@hippychikforever]

^^^^THIS!!!!!^^^^

[@nightoftheworld]

Aka PMC’s “professional managerial class”… they do some things, like organizing infantilizing team building activities and scheduling endless redundant/unproductive meetings.

[@ryanosterman2651]

Yup, capitalism.

[@shonagraham2752]

If only! They don't just produce nothing real, they stop ANYTHING real being produced. Purpose of farming was to feed us, now its to make money, if they make more money growing flowers than food so be it, purpose is money not eating. Purpose of house building was to house us to house us, if they make more money building mansions for foreign oligarchs as property portfolios so what purpose is money not shelter. More importantly purpose of Industrial Military Complex is to make profits not bombs. USA doesn't even have defence capabilities beyond the odd victory over an afghan wedding. Yes Industrial military complex sucks up all the money, but you're not even getting defence out of that in fact they've made sure USA will never be able to defend itself.

[@cesarjeopardy8267]

I'm 71 yo. I lived through most of this. This is an excellent summary of events over the past 50 years. Of the damage done, I'll say that we did it to ourselves.

[@robstewart4702]

I'm 61, an economist and I have studied neoliberalism in great detail. I think you're absolutely right and say it succinctly with "we did it to ourselves". Collectively, the boomer generation gave up defending very hard won gains from the New Deal. The generations following us are paying the highest price for our failure.

[@urbanverificationist]

@@robstewart4702The architects of the Great Con were from the so called "Greatest Generation."

[@tanl7756]

@@robstewart4702 I'm 71 and I lived thru it too and it breaks my heart. FDR should be a Saint, the highest Hero. Truman started the downfall by getting with MIC. Eisenhower warned, but he DID nothing to stop it from growing. JFK wanted to, but was murdered. And here we are. Neocons/neolibs pushed the US over the edge and now? We're done. We have been the evil empire since cold war ended - all the destruction and hell the US caused other nations.

[@BobQuigley]

I watch in sadness as my own children further the damages. Occasionally find the courage to recognize the source of their behavior.....

[@justanotherguy1794]

I didn't do it to myself or anyone else; you did it to me.

[@jfrorn]

My god going through all this again (the video is at the 90’s) is so depressing. What a disaster the Clinton administration was, complete, abject surrender to the new plutocratic order…

[@michelegosse7116]

policing had transformed into politicianism. holding a career in politics, lazy (staffers and lobbyists do the little work), greedy, 'representating' , posture and gestures, everything turned to - isms as in covidism and greenism, blob culture.

[@michelegosse7116]

maybe.. she had some programs at heart, thought they were a team, he was upstart-mentality , a bad piece of work, ambitious by any means. The tide and times turning around them too. But the decisions were theirs, you can always denounce and quit.

[@compassioncampaigner728]

Another rare but insightful comment that illuminates how oligarch-ic our culture and government has become.

[@mathewbrown9371]

Perhaps, although the point being made is more nuanced than that. As he points out, it was also a question of political survival; Clinton didnt have the clout to stand up to the prevailing historical winds after the fall of the Soviet Union. If anyone really blew it, it was Obama, who did have the clout and opportunity to reorient the country.

[@tealc6218]

This started with G HW BUsh and NAFTA, Clinton just continued it.

[@jong.7944]

On the hugely negative role of the fall of the Soviet Union on the West: When I was a freshman, my writing instructor (hilariously) was a Russian immigrant - which was actually something of a trend at my school in the late 90s... half my instructors were from Russia or Poland it seemed. Anyway, in casual comments one day he said that while he hated the Soviet system (especially as his family was not among the aristocratic party members) he still lamented that its fall would be bad for the West, and the US especially. His reasoning... without the Soviet "bogeyman" there would be infinitely less restraint on big corporations... 20 years later, I can't say he was wrong in his assessment.

[@Alehzinhah]

This is really terrible... But, let's be reasonable, what's the real difference between Soviet aristocracy and Wall Street aristocracy? At least in URSS they had cheap housing, full employment, free education and healthcare... From this perspective, the west is a lot worse

[@justanotherguy1794]

Prescient.

[@jong.7944]

@@Alehzinhah I wouldn’t disagree. I heard someone once say that as bad as the Soviet system was, its demise was accelerated by selfish elites in the governing clique ultimately finding they could make more money (or steal more) without the constraints of the system, hence the birth of the Russian oligarchs, almost all of whom either were former government officials or bribed said officials to buy everything “privatized” at fire sale prices. None of this is of course to suggest that Soviet socialism worked necessarily better - it was a choice of evils.

[@begaimusenova3593]

Your Russian immigrant teacher argued as if someone from the outside had invented the fall of the USSR, yet the country collapsed for objective reasons: a flawed planned economy.

[@winninglifeyo]

@@begaimusenova3593 It fell bc of the transition to Neoliberalism led by the US. We discussed this my first yr in college for an MBA

[@garrettramirez428]

When he implied that Clinton wasn't a neoliberal until after 1994 he lost me. Hasn't he heard of the Democratic Leadership Conference??

[@paulkesler1744]

Gerstle is right on many topics, but on at least two he's mistaken. First, what the Soviet Union had was not Communism; it was simply top-down authoritarianism. When Marx & Engles wrote The Communist Manifesto, they were not advocating for a system that would have had any resemblance to what happened under Stalin, Kruschev, Breshnev, etc. They'd have been appalled by that development. Second, there's little evidence that the Neoliberal Order has fallen, or has even seriously "fractured." SOCIETY has fractured, but Neoliberalism remains intact. Gerstle provides no substantial evidence to support his claim. Globalism persists, along with the offshoring of American jobs (and the importation of low-wage foreign workers into America). Also persisting is the refusal of the Federal government to supply adequate funding to the states for healthcare, housing, public education, and other necessities. The three key pillars of Neoliberal policy remain in place: privatization of public assets; deregulation of banking & finance; and a deeply regressive tax policy which benefits the rich at the expense of common people. So the Neoliberal agenda, contrary to Gerstle's thesis, is alive and well.

[@ODDwayne1]

I fully agree with your points. But recall at the beginning - he talked about the 2 orders which dominated the parties, AND kept the People's *general* support. With Trump, the Powers that Be actually wanted Clinton. She was their anointed sock-puppet. The Professor sees a SHIFT in the polity - not accepting the games of either party, really. You and I know that Biden is atrocious. But the Elite had to throw EVERYTHING into getting him elected over Trump. And they're probably about to LOSE control again. We're back in 1932 - and AGAIN looking at either Fascism or a MAJOR shift toward the People to "save capitalism" as FDR did. The latter seems unlikely. They're Austrian Schooling us straight into Nazism. Everyone knows Dems will lose in Nov. And Biden is already a segregationist who's been partnering with Global Fascism for a decade !

[@thomashahn631]

All economic systems have a tendency to merge towards top down authoritarianism. There is much similar between the final stages of soviet communism and today's neoliberalism: both are top down - one directed from the politburo, the other directed from the board rooms of Wall Street and major corporations; and both are inefficient - our healthcare industry being the prime example. Neoliberalism is the natural evolution of capitalism.

[@meggallucci5300]

Well stated, but I think there are some cracks in the neoliberal facade. If Russia continues to win in Ukraine, those cracks will widen. The west under NATO, meaning largely the U.S., armed and trained the Ukrainians for 8 years, and Russia in slowly demilitarizing the Country and has gained over 20 percent of its territory in the East in 4 months. Perception is critical, and the false perception that the U.S. can and will prevail militarily will reduce confidence. We have lost numerous wars for sure but not against a country with any real power, like Russia. Plus, Joe Biden is the ultimate neocon so I have no sympathy for him, even though I had some faith when he got us out of Afghanistan. All now dashed. I saw the videos on utube of Canadian NATO members training Ukrainians, and the Brits goading the Russians in the Black Sea last summer before this war began. NATO has no ability to defeat the Russian military. 8 years of US training versus 4 months of a Russian military operation plus economic sanctions, and they are winning. This will definitely hurt the neocons/neoliberals.

[@jasonkillbourn]

@@thomashahn631 Yes, and to understand the truly fatal flaw at the heart of neoliberalism, we have to go back to the closing decade of the 19th Century and the birth of neoclassical economics itself, when Rockefeller, Morgan and a number of other robber barons, poured immense sums of their personal wealth into establishing the Chicago School, where they hurriedly dropped the value difference between Land and Capital, arguing that Land was just another form of Capital, thereby effectively calling open season on the Earth and all of its resources. The economic model that grew from that, was literally doomed to be a cul-de-sac with some manner of plutocracy at the bottom, and towards which we are currently heading. So yes, neoliberalism, which is to all intents and purposes the political wing of neoclassical economics, is alive and kicking, and still doing exactly what it was intended to do, unfortunately.

[@Jorenanthony]

Very well said. I agree across the board with your comment.

[@matthewo2261]

Interesting... but the constant emphasis on the political parties and their leaders being the architects of policy is obsurd. The RICH in the US control both parties, even during the "Roosevelt era". The reality of the evolution or "flow" of US political history was always a story of changing directives and ideas of the RICH in the US, and this is how your story should be told. Therefore, this story would more closely resemble reality with a complete inclusion of the names of the specific RICH people controlling it all, at each stage of policy, and their specific personal financial interests. For example, it's not a coincidance that every southern RICH person was pro-slavery before the civil war, context matters.

[@compassioncampaigner728]

Whoa Do you know how often I hear the basic truth that oligarchs run the country comprehensively? Borderline zero.

[@ivandafoe5451]

Spot on. This self-serving, self-censorship from professional academia that somehow stops them from reaching the obvious conclusions from their research, is yet another pandemic that infects modern developed societies world-wide. "Their (own) specific personal financial interests" seem to prevent them from pointing the finger of blame at the same corporate donor class that funds the careers of professors and politicians...indeed of almost all potential critics who are depending on capitalist entities for their livelihoods. Once again reinforcing the "blame the government" scapegoating that bolsters corporate narratives.

[@Mzbonezz]

Yeah he doesn't even mention the Powell Memo...

[@ktex4873]

Amen! Just more academic brainwashed propoganda by this guy... Trump BAD.

[@ktex4873]

Anyone that thinks that a) elections are legitimate and b) the characters we call 'presidents' actually have any power..... Well, wake up, buddy!

[@TheGodFr0mTheMachine]

Great and interesting summary of Neoliberalism's history, but I find the apologia for the modern Democratic presidents very strange. The situation we are in is their fault. They were some of the most powerful men in the world and chose not to fix any problems.

[@marybusch6182]

Chose to make the problems worse. Glass steagul and the great bank bailouts. Part of the 40+ trillion siphoned away from the bottom 98% over the last 40 years. Used to buy each and everyone one of our politicians. We don’t have a living wage, our mass transportation system is a health hazard and over 500,000 families are bankrupted by obscene healthcare charges Every Single Year.

[@blueeyes6192]

Simplistic and naive thinking. Shouldn’t the democratic and freedom ideology have provided checks and balances to address your argument? It failed miserably.

[@susanray8811]

🤣🤣🤣 Well silly, the Democrats became the other ... corporatist party.

[@suewarman9287]

Never listen to *any* Oxbridge Professor's - they haven't got a clue!

[@magdalenaalgarin3218]

Yes there was a contradiction there. I guess it's easier to be courageous when commenting on (past) historical times.

[@greganastas]

Its sad that anyone would think that all these politicians are not corrupt to the core. Follow the money helps expose all of them. We live in a system that is broken.

[@andywomack3414]

Gerstyle must think Obama the exception. Otherwise I agree with most of his analysis.

[@Jackzay90]

one of the central problems is that the "left" in our country isn't in fact the left. So when capitalism shits it's pants like it loves to do, whichever neoliberal party is in charge takes the blame and the answer is more neoliberalism.

[@michaelcap9550]

@@andywomack3414 Obummer is the most corrupt. Socialism is for losers.

[@andywomack3414]

@@michaelcap9550 Obama hasn't a single socialist thought in his head. He was and remains a capitalist tool. Corruption is a part of a capitalist's skill set. Obama is owned by capitalists.

[@yttean98]

I see Prof. G Gerstle as someone who is pro neoliberalism in his economic viewpoint until recently and can write a book like this. This means the problem is serious, will the political elites in Washington do something I don't think so because the system is too entrenched and does not allow them to.

[@corey8247]

Basically fascism

[@sewnsew6770]

Yes this older generation needs to pass on. But it seems to take forever

[@davidmoss2576]

@@sewnsew6770 I'm in my late 40's and if you're hoping for my generation taking over and doing the right thing you better pick again. I was lucky to have a good education and also had mentors who showed me the real world. The people I went to school with are book smart yet common sense is a 7th sense to them.

[@sewnsew6770]

@@davidmoss2576 it’s interesting Rudolf Steiner in 1920 said that people did not have the courage to face the real. That generation. So it had already started 100 years ago. But he said 1800s people were able to do it

[@davidmoss2576]

@@sewnsew6770 Yeah I don't think it's a matter of generation such much as the will to do the hard things. Just like how the feds refuse to raise interest rates to 12% where it should be to curve inflation. All this just to avoid recession

[@vincentanguoni8938]

He may have thought Brexit would never happen but this amateur saw it coming along with many others in the nineties while I was living in Berlin and traveling to London .these are the same people that were Stalin apologists..they see the world differently from the ivory towers!!

[@baddudecornpop5226]

You had me till' biden who is a neo=liberal through and through.

[@tanl7756]

He is also ruled by neocons, this whole Ukraine mess is neocon doing from 2014. Biden is a disaster AND Anyone that blocks our energy independence, all kinds of energy, gas, oil, coal, fracking, pipelines, drilling etc., is guilty of TREASON since energy independence is national security. MAKE IT ILLEGAL TO DO THIS. Anyone that blocks all energy is waging war on America. He also got Trump ALL wrong. He wanted to make a huge Ellis Island on S border, he wanted people to come legally and be checked out. Yeah, a LOT of rapists of kids too, criminals were sneaking in. An Ellis Island would have fixed that. Enrich himself? He is the ONLY president that refused to take payment for the job and refused funding from big corps. Trump did not throw anyone away. He got stomped on from ALL quarters. So this guy is NOT too bright. Try Mearsheimer.

[@greencat8949]

Also, when he said, Biden needed a greater majority in the Senate to make changes.

[@rtdude1]

And when he said the Biden administration was handling the Ukraine crisis well…smh

[@ivandafoe5451]

@@greencat8949 Shumer's 29 hand-picked and DNC funded, centrist Senate candidates all lost from a lack of public support in the last election. You would almost think the paper thin majority was a planned-for situation.

[@Mzbonezz]

@@greencat8949 Seriously, cognitive dissonance. He talked earlier about how previous presidents in the 30s-70s got through monumental changes by negotiating and working with the other parties. Now, "poor Biden, it isn't his fault he can't control everything!" Come on. He is a politician, his job is to get his programs passed and whip votes to get the support he needs...this is a joke. If Biden wanted to make changes, he would. His entire time being in politics he's been a Neoliberal for one of the most Neoliberal states you can find.

[@patriayvida6850]

The problem in the 70s wasn't the competition in manufacturing. The greed of the capitalists who offshored manufacturing to China & elsewhere so they could rake in more profits, avoid laws & have slaves instead of workers was the problem. And those things are not the same.

[@1848revolt]

That is competition. If the manufacturers didnt move to china they wouldnt have been able to compete. Competition without cooperation is bad. You need both to succeed

[@f1aziz]

American automakers like GM, Ford, Tesla etc make gigantic amounts more in profits in China than they do in America. Free market espouses free flow of capital across borders.

[@stevesedio1656]

I worked at several companies that first moved to Mexico, then to China. The motivation was the competition was doing it, and labor was a major portion of product cost (labor was half the product cost with Chinese labor). Shortly after, competition from Taiwanese companies, with manufacturing in China, forcing profit margins even lower. The companies that couldn't were bought by those that (barely) could.

[@patbyrneme007]

This is obviously an interview that is over one year old. It is very important that you inform viewers when an interview is recorded.

[@Mzbonezz]

I hope that is true.

[@jimgraham6722]

No he mentions Ukraine crisis, wasnt a thing twelve months ago

[@turquoiseowl]

@@jimgraham6722 2014

[@jimgraham6722]

@@turquoiseowl But that was pre Biden and pre pandemic.

[@turquoiseowl]

@@jimgraham6722 2014 is when the current war in Ukraine began

[@lagringa7518]

I was onboard with everything said, except when you praised Biden's so called "sensitivity" ... all you have to do is look at his record that shows exactly how little sensitivity he had towards the average American citizen (especially the black and brown). And we all know damn well that he is in mental decline... and being managed by whom exactly? Frankly it's time for many of these old east coast perpetrators with their many past crimes to dwindle into obscurity to make way for some much needed new blood. The neoliberal agenda has destroyed America, what more proof do you need?.

[@jimgraham6722]

Trump old east coast as well, badly need to find young competent people, are there any?

[@johnhigson6206]

Probably Mrs. Biden

[@emiliamartucci8291]

Then why did Rep Jim Clyburn so enthusiastically endorse him, thus saving his campaign. Would you please clarify why you think that Biden is not “sensitive?” I am asking sincerely.

[@inokehemaloto9832]

Loved this Loved how he’s Broken down the last century into two political orders - which isn’t new, but his insight - how opposition parties were co-opted against their Historical positions - for me this was new Illuminating

[@tanl7756]

Mearsheimer is 100 times better, more clarity.

[@zantecarroll4448]

check yanis vaoufakis

[@aerobique]

find peter joseph

[@BobQuigley]

In the end this discussion generated another indictment of our failing flailing out of touch system of governance. Clinging to outdated documents which should be in museums, not used to govern a nation of 330 million in a world of 8 billion in 2022.

[@fernandoesteban2345]

Well said sir.

[@jessewood3196]

This felt like too much Obama apologizing. He did have a mandate; he had every branch of government, he said he needed a movement to force his hand, and sure enough the occupy movement was there, and what did he do? Helped the mayors to bulldoze occupy, that's what he did. And he's been helping to stiff arm real change ever since. Ironic from Mr. hope and change.

[@Ravi9A]

yup, it's excessive whining about muh racism and muh whitelash

[@aaronjenkins2135]

Embarrassing his assessment of Obamas failure comes down to his race and not his idiotic policy’s. Typical woke mindset of nonsense

[@ttrons2]

You lost me when you said he handled the Ukrainian crisis well. The US created it.

[@Mzbonezz]

Yap, gatta usher in that multi-polar world somehow!

[@pangorban1]

When he said that, I couldn't reach the Dislike button fast enough!

[@justaname2442]

What do you mean by the US created it? Refusal to deny Ukraine entry to NATO or something else? My opinion is it takes two to tango, but the current escalation is obviously Putin’s fault. His government pulled the trigger on invading the entirety of Ukraine and they did not have to. Nobody forced them to bomb Kyiv or start assassinating citizens. It’s not like Ukraine started bombing Moscow or obtained nukes.

[@BobParrIncr]

He writes for the Athlantic and the guardian- say no more

[@hugabill]

Exactly. That lauding of Biden at the end was a radical shift from objective insight to politicking.

[@patrickholt2270]

What's missing from this rather superficial account of the history of economic policy since the 1970s is class anlysis and the role and necessity, of working class agency in achieving the policy change called the New Deal and the all too brief Keynesian interregnum between the domination of liberal economics prior to the Wall Street Crash and the re-imposition of liberal economics after cerca 1974, which is called neo-liberalism because it was the return to the liberal status quo ante. You could imagine from this account that economic policy changes are just the result of elections and the intellectual success of one set of ideas or another so that "policy-makers" decide upon a change merely because a new idea has "won the argument" at academic level. Nothing could be further from the truth. The New Deal was the achievement of the American working class, resulting not just from a wave of unionization over the course of the 1920s and early 1930s, but as the delayed result of union organising and the steady spreading of socialist politics beginning in the 1880s with the American People's Party, and the more recent influence of the Russian Revolution. In western Europe the historical preparation for the postwar Keynesian concensus, or the "trentes gloriouse" is more obvious, in that it was the outcome of over a century of steady development of unions and socialist politics which had first triggered the Russian revolution, but outside of the countries which succumbed to fascism, had not been halted and dimantled by a red scare campaign like that launched in the US as part of the manufacturing of consent for the US to join WW1. The organised working class and its political vehicles across western Europe were able to force such a change of economic policies because they had attained the polotical and social strength with which to make rev0olutions if that change did not happen, to win elections and not have them overtturned by coups, as is the norm. Further, due to victory of the Red Army over the Wehrmacht, the bourgeoisie's first choice of response to socialist electoral victories and union strength, which is fascism, had been discredited and destroyed for a generation or two. So policy changes from liberal economics to Keynesianism and back don't just happen because this election or that politicians orr the persuasive genuis of the ideas in themselves. They did not come about for those reasons, and they will not in the future, which is why neoliberalism stilill rules despite its intellectually crtedibility havng been long since destroyed. The neoliberal counter-revolution took place in the mid 1970s, with the end of Breton Woods, and the rightwingers in the Labour party taking an IMF loan with its requirements ofr public spending cuts and the first privatisations. While Keynesianism got maybe 30 years in Britain and France, and maybe 43 years or so in the USA, neoliberalism has been allowed to run for 48 years and counting. This isn't just a generational thing or a battle of ideas thing. This is class power in action. If we want to see a major change in economic polices away from neoliberalism and toward reditribution of wealth downwards and a properly regulated, green economy there is no relying on the lies of Robert Reich or Mark Blythe and their intellectual calibre to deliver it for us, because the jkey decisionmakers are not open to persuasion. They are serving their class interests and their businesses, and it is those which have to be destroyed to get them out of the way. Which at this pint requires not an electoral revolution, but an actual revolution, since the oligarchic power of corporations and Wall Street and plutocrats is such that change through the electoral system has been rendered impossible.

[@Mzbonezz]

Thank you for the great comment. Anyone interested in learning more about the history not mentioned in this video should check out Howard Zinn's The People's History of the United States.

[@qingzhou9983]

Revolution is always the quickest way, but you may not get the revolution or the result you wants. It is like a war. Once it starts, it will take on its own life.

[@44bett]

Well said - tough cure for tough times!

[@kaijessen3654]

The description of the arc of the neoliberal order is by now familiar but he retains affection for the democrats and forgiveness for their sins. The democrats are now neoliberal to their core and their geriatric and sclerotic upper leadership are not just derided but increasingly deeply hated by the American public. Obama wasn’t just a well meaning chap that was dealt a bad hand. His bank bailouts were as disastrous for America as the Iraq War was. Both of those massive policy failures were also institutionalized and welded into the framework of national policy so that bailouts and wars happen automatically. No matter which neoliberal party occupies the White House and the rest of the D.C. kleptocratic and war mongering consensus. There is no debate on the supreme importance of war spending and a laissez-faire libertarian approach to encouraging corporations to maximize profits at any cost. Maybe before Biden became president you could hide a little bit of how alike the two parties are but having the most right wing democrat ever to lead his party should finally open peoples eyes to the truth. Incredibly it hasn’t as republicans and democrats hate each other like they are the devil when it should be obvious that there is hardly a lick of difference between them.

[@pitchforksarecoming]

This isn't a race contest/war this is a class contest/war!

[@dentonfender6492]

Without government regulation that we use to have, we now have today, ownership, and control of everything by the corporate oligarchy, a tiny little minority of people with no interest in the welfare of the American people, none whatsoever. We might as well call our government, FASCIST.

[@44bett]

CORRECT

[@1848revolt]

Free market capitalism is an oxymoron. There is nothing free about capitalism. Capitalists do not like competition.

[@McFraneth]

Sent this to my mother, born 1946. She will be able to relate to this totally. She watched this unfold.

[@kayzyr9442]

Mitch McConnell speaking of President Obama, “We want him to fail!”

[@boi9842]

Obama is a war criminal neoliberal

[@thekb1924]

You make excuse for Obama.

[@kayzyr9442]

@@thekb1924 Just quoted Mitch McConnell. At the time, I had a hard time believing it, too. I always wanted every U.S. President to succeed, even if I hadn’t voted for him.

[@billedley795]

Excellent summary of the New Deal...vs...neo-liberal...

[@MarkDemarest]

Most RIVETING piece I’ve seen ALL YEAR. 🙌🏼 And a GREAT reason to vote down-ticket, at the end! 🧐 I now have a few great books to read - thank you. 🙏 MUST. SHARE. WIDELY. 📢

[@PaulJurczak]

The title of the book is missing from the summary. Here you go: "The Rise and Fall of the Neoliberal Order: America and the World in the Free Market Era"

[@urbanverificationist]

Free Markets are like free love and free ice cream..

[@SameAsAnyOtherStranger]

The only thing I want to hear about is the aftereffects of extraction. Whether it's mineral resources or the resource of the people who produce the goods. Going in to any endeavor that generates wealth there is an inevitable if not completely foreseeable end. It is completely irresponsible to not impose a system that would financially force corporations to be accountable to the environment and larger society. A bond system that is paid into as a percentage of return on investment.

[@urbanverificationist]

Corporations are created by the government by law. Their purview can be defined by the State. Congress has allowed corporate America to attack labor standards, wages, benefits, pensions, ship jobs overseas, and screw consumers.

[@mrmuttley1]

How the Hell did anyone believe that someone who lived in Hyde Park not believe in Milton Friedman?

[@MK-ee9wq]

Too lenient on Obama and totally, outrageously wrong on Jim Crow Jo. Had to press 👎

[@m.woodsrobinson9244]

Absolutely. Alot of people erroneously thought putting a black face in a high place was going to fundamentally change the character of this country. If anything, it was the opposite. Obama spent many years of his presidency apologizing to white America for his inconvenient blackness. As for Biden? His long track record spoke for itself for those interested in looking into it.

[@boi9842]

This video is full of truths and BS at the same time. The Obama/Biden apologia was ridiculous!

[@clionamoore8365]

Wonderful talk . Thank you . Even though it was primarily focused on the US story , it was lock step with the UK story post WW2 and up to the present day .

[@apollocobain8363]

Did he say that Occupy did not exist until Obama's SECOND term? What Trump did was basic marketing 101 -- "Listen to the customer and then speak to them using the words and phrases they used."

[@michaellittle1340]

Thank you for providing very cogent descriptions of the terrible political/economic mess we are in.

[@spartacusforlife1508]

might want to read up on the polish economist Kelecki. he pointed out the faults in keynes theory and the ideas of ayn rand and friedman and has found to be spot on. we need an economic middle ground that will see workers profit from higher production and reduce excess profits from corporations. this can only be done through thoughtful political legislation. hopefully this will head off the move to populist politics and return us pragmatism.

[@charlierodriguez8489]

Woo. Assuming Obama would have done better with a larger left base is comical. Black Reagan wasn't gonna help anyone but his Havard buddies. Sure, race is an issue, but you can buy privilege nowadays.

[@ivandafoe5451]

Exactly. Obama came from virtually nowhere into the (first "black") Presidency with the support of Wall Street, in return for some VERY big favors....trillions in exclusive bailouts and zero legal accountability for their crimes.

[@johnschumacher8725]

Another factor is the Cold War. Since government contracts for defense guaranteed profit for defense contractors, why would they produce for the consumer market and face competition? Also, as Chalmers Johnson pointed out, favorable treatment of Japanese imports was an unspoken “quid pro quo” for maintaining bases in Japan.

[@colin7168]

I really enjoyed this, thank you very much.

[@byronskoretz7650]

We'll that was a waste of my time. Especially when he expressed the same rhetoric regarding Trump. Yet Biden a thug is still praised. Thank God I didn't waste my money on his book.

[@Mzbonezz]

Yeah he lost a lot of sales when he started talking about Biden...

[@POLISHAMERICANLEGIONS]

All the best from Polish American from Washington DC .

[@Ianpact]

Thank you, Rob and Prof. Gary Gerstle.

[@NayTunThein]

Gary Gerstle: I agreed with most of what you said in the earlier part of your conversation. But, I disagree with your view on Joe Biden. His personal sufferings are nothing to do with whether he is a good president or not. You've discredited Obama for not doing enough while Obama's Congress is not favorable towards him. But, you've blamed Congress's partisanship for Biden's failures. You are too biased towards Joe Biden. I wonder why? Edited: In the 2010 midterm elections, the Republican Party won the majority in the House of Representatives.

[@tonywilson4713]

Go back and listen to his final part. I don't think he's biased for or against Biden he's just stating the obvious. starting at 1:00:39 _"It would have been a very different Biden presidency with a real majority and the lack of a majority has thwarted most of those ambitions and the pandemic continues to be a difficult beast to master and the Ukraine crisis which I think the Biden administration is handling well but he's is he's stalled on the home front and the domestic front and it's not because he's too old or he's demented but because he doesn't have the political majority he needs to implement the kind of vision he wants for America"_ (and yes I clipped out the er's and um's)

[@P4DDYW4CK]

I disagree. Obama had a supermajority and lost it (along with over 1,000 legislative seats in the country) partly because of his inability to punish Wall Street corruption and bail out the American people, partly because of Tea Party racism, and partly because he didn’t deliver a large enough stimulus. The economy didn’t get better for regular folks. It was the neoliberalism. Joe also has not fought for what he campaigned on, and seems barely disappointed about it, and refuses to fight Joe Manchin and Sinema.

[@tonywilson4713]

@@P4DDYW4CK Well summed up. For what Obama started with he squandered one of the greatest opportunities in western democratic history.

[@daysjours]

Your comment makes me not even wanna watch this! If he defends Biden then why bother? Biden is a Reagan Democrat -- actually voted for the Reagan tax cuts and for years has been jonzing to cut Medicare & Soc. Secur. He is truly a heartless & despicable man.

[@paulvonhindenburg4727]

Biden's failures are the failures of those who installed him. Nobody wanted a piece of taxidermy made president. But he's been a dutiful servant of the FIRE sector.

[@russellmason5095]

I was surprised that you didn't mention the dollar becoming the fiat currency under Nixon as one of the major developments if not the major development of the 70s.

[@laogong52]

Excellent program , remember all the events . This brings all in to context. It's all coming undone now.

[@sheharyarmalik3554]

can you please do something about making the audio betterrr - i love your content but cant hear properly

[@Acode7940]

Really interesting broad yet specific presentation of our politics and eonomy over the years, Very helpful.

[@brettg9481]

Gerstle connects all the dots well. I am getting the book.

[@cliftonwhitchurch5309]

Thankyou!! As a child of the 60's this discussion resonates with this "tired" old 72 yr old. Thankyou for the lesson! Really "tired" of watching the destruction of our nation. But maybe happy to see The Empire failing. Conflicted? You bet!

[@0150Tricia]

Excellent report. Thank you.

[@nicolasm400]

Democratize the enterprise. If democracy is good for our governments its good for where we spend most of the week

[@urrywest]

That is a very good point. The trouble with democratizing the work place alone and not other reforms like healthcare, housing and eduction is that when you leave monopolies like these in the hands of the paracites the people in those democratic workplaces are subject to the same debts that the rest of the economy is suffering from.

[@PoliticalEconomy101]

Thats the problem our government is not democratized. If you want economic democracy you first will have to democratize the political system. Get your priorities strait.

[@nicolasm400]

@@PoliticalEconomy101 100% we should further democratize the political process (for exemple do referendums more often instead of only electing rulers), but we do have universal suffrage politically. A reason why democratically elected governments often keep on being corrupt is they are captured by capitalists. It's hard to have political democracy when you continue to abandon industries at the top. It's hard to get people to engage when 40h+ at their jobs from a young age they learn to be passive, obedient employees. It's sometimes contradictory to be an wage-slave and be an active citizen on the other hand.

[@lukasmolcic5143]

@@nicolasm400 finding a way to at least limit the effect of corporate campaign donations would also be huge to move the political democracy further, this way you only get to choose between those who the capital pays for you to have a choice between

[@mossydog2385]

Nixon had a universal healthcare plan too, although he allowed hospitals to operate for profit for the first time in modern American history. To call China or the Soviet Union "communist" has never been correct. Russia never implemented Marxism, even under Lenin, and Mao was as much a dictator as any Soviet Premier. They were closer to monarchies than anything else. I've heard it said that they took the worst parts of every economic system and system of government and ran with them....which wasn't far from the truth as far as I was able to see, although Stasi was able to prevent me from getting TOO close a look.

[@TiberiiGrakh]

communism is no money state so obviously USSR never had communism, they never reached communism and they clearly said about that. 2) real socialism was under Stalin who made all this insane USSR economy growth, sciense and best education in the world (Kennedy's words about education) So many true pro communists see Stalin as great leader. but in west ppl are brainwashed to a level that its gulag 24 7 is what stalin did. ignoring that USA had worse Gulag that USSR had, ignoring that cia did a cleaning where people were missing from a streets and cia killed up to 60-80 k people without ANY justification except they were pro communist or socialists. NONE of western history books are crying and screaming about these facts. It wasnt monarchies wtf BS are you talking about. If you want to talk about monarchies or feudalism - its western capitalism = financial dictatorship where finance capital dictates everything and controls everything. what you see nowadays 4) ppl in the west HAVE NO IDEA what life was in USSR a lot of modern Russian want to live in USSR and wants ussr back cause of strenth of economy, cause stability, good education, social programms and just people all these brainwashing stories about USSR was GULAG and nothing else and ppl were poor as slaves is nothing more than another 100% western lie Im 35yo russian i lived in EU and Japan for 15 years and i was in USA for 6 months and i perfectly seen 3 systems. guess what if you want to talk about worst tyrannical dictatorship ever - its modern USA. but dictatorship not from one person to others but from one country to others. and 100% lie EVERYWHERE that creates a bubble like Truman show. the worst thing is 90% of western people dont see this shit and livbe ENTIRE life in that show. whatch some jimmy dore shows on YT just to open your eyes.

[@mdb3040]

Looking back at the Obama era is just so sad. There was so much hope and he became president at the most perfect time when the people were angry and would have supported change. Instead things just got worse… a lot worse

[@jamesharris184]

It's a good thing no one's covered this before

[@stephenhardy312]

A very good presentation.

[@alexnosal2277]

Hd lost me when he said that he thought Biden was doing a good job in the Ukraine.

[@DeeMarie111]

same. Turned it off. what a deeply misguided statement. He's bought all the propaganda and probably knows little to nothing about what is going on. What is Biden doing well there? Arming soldiers of fortune and Nazis with top grade weapons that will most likely be used for nefarious reasons.

[@paintedjaguar]

Biden and others like him CREATED that situation. And collected millions in personal graft while doing so.

[@beksinski]

We've never had a free market. Just crony capitalism and plutocracy.

[@44bett]

Correct RS.

[@mionanik7508]

Love this. So brilliantly explained.

[@sutikareoluwagbenga1272]

Wow!!!! Excellent!!!

[@thomascousins9150]

Fantastic. This is better than spending money on a university course.

[@andywomack3414]

The force behind the neoliberal order is wealth. The force of wealth must be counter-balanced. The force of wealth must also be preserved. How that force is used to promote the general welfare is one of the duties of government.

[@kassfischer5146]

No discussions of US history and global politics should be held without frank talk about Israel and its’ continued defiance of international law, and US administrations’ failures to condition aid. Two that sort of tried are Carter and Bush senior. Both one-term presidencies. This power dynamic is the elephant in the room. I recommend the books( not the article) “the Israel Lobby” by Mearsheimer and Walt, and the book, “By Way of Deception”, by Victor Osttovsky.

[@patbranigan6501]

Sub prime loans were just fleecing the customer. Those loans were made to steal money from the people they lent to. Any person who is in finance especially those of us old time finance people who have been in it for over 40 years know that a person cannot pay off a loan wit almost no money down and variable rates if they cannot pay off a loan with a down payment and fixed rates that is hy they had the down payment rules of about 20% as that told the lender that the people can save and they can get enough money together to pay off a loan.. Those loans were always just a fleecing the poor and lower classes getting them to take care of the buildings that they would never fully own but will pay good money for and so will the next mark.

[@MickLeonardJD]

Spoken like a Cosmopolitan American who can’t see the forest through the trees.

[@tealc6218]

I love the pregnant pause as he searches for a less damming euphemism "cultural hybridity" to describe the effect of homogenizing and destroying traditional cultures of the world, that occurs with the universalist spread of neoliberalism.

[@larrycarlini328]

Very insightful

[@pb8601]

Great succinct discussion. I learned a lot. Thanks!

[@mrmuttley1]

Sir John Ralston Saul was the COO of PetroCanada when it was a crown corporation.

[@augurcybernaut4785]

👏 👏 Thomas Frank levels of clarity

[@maryanjustynski8788]

Thank you ☕️

[@javierburgos9975]

It only took me till 1:28 to come to the conclusion that you are blind to the material state of the world or propagandist masquerading as intellectuals. How can I trust anything you say when you use a fallacy so casually.

[@saelind73]

Writes for The Guardian. Enough said. lol

[@Lennis01]

@@saelind73 The Guardian is, in effect, a guardian of the political establishment. He also lost me late in the interview when he implied that America, and Trump inparticular, is racist. That is a deflection from the real issues. The American people have largely moved past racist ways of thinking. It is the government and certain ivory tower elites that just won't let it go.

[@saelind73]

@@Lennis01 It's hard for them smh. It's embedded on them. I was listening to Jeffrey Sachs the other day and despite the fact that he isn't following the official narrative with regards to Ukraine, at certain point he said: "I'm so, so disappointed with Biden and how hawkish he has been." And I was stunned because how could you have ever believed that Biden would be anything else? Haven't you listen to the guy before? You thought Trump was bad but Biden was good based on what? Why? How could you be so naive?

[@throwawayidiot6451]

Good talk. Random but he reminded me of Jeffrey Tambor in Arrested Development

[@magaliroy-fequiere792]

So much finally explained!!!

[@nooneyouknow7036]

I very much enjoy and appreciate this discussion and the commitment of the duo's time and efforts on this subject. I would comment, however, on the contrast between their criticism of former Republican presidents and Democratic presidents. The sympathy for their challenges and the forgiveness of their failures. It seems to me, that a big problem with the Democratic party, which I am personally looking towards for progress, is the lack of a stomach for a fight. DJT was certainly flawed, but he did not shy from the fight to challenge the "rigged" status quo. Where is our current day FDR? I read that the autopsy of the 1984 presidential election was that Mondale lost because he was out-spent and going forward Democrats would have to match dollar for dollar to have a fighting chance. The Democrats went "hat in hand" to Wall Street. WJC couldn't have been a better friend to traditional Republican constituents and a worse champion for the base of the Democratic party. BHO promised us "hope and change" and did not deliver on the back half. The left may not have been deeply organized, but they were certainly present and vocal. Obama allowed the Occupy protesters to be attacked and removed city by city, if I recall. He was a class-act and I am proud of him as an American, but I want a hero. Trump's victory over Jeb Bush's lavishly funded campaign should be considered a refutation of that flawed post 1984 conclusion. I want someone that will not roll over in the face of the entrenched powers, that will not sell-out, and has a clear sense of what is fair, and will fight, fight, fight, for the people that sent him/her to that exalted office. POTUS is a tough job, but I'm not sure we should be looking for ways to sympathize with the individual when they have so much at their disposal. Acquiescence to rotten policy is not much different from advancing it, as far as the final result is concerned. It's frustrating to me that the Democratic party seems to be content to fund itself as it's first priority and offer not much more than acknowledgement to it's base. I like that neoliberalism is not the guiding light in the Biden administration, and will be watching and hoping for some fruits over his term. What's left of the Democratic Congress needs to wake up and worry more about their legacies than their campaign coffers.

[@michelegosse7116]

Interesting He has such a smooth map: a vague ideology in a weak mind. Nothing whispering in an open ear??

[@vincentanguoni8938]

Nice

[@caroleekeith2823]

Deregulated corporate capitalism is nothing more than greed run amuck and greed run amuck will destroy everything. In my opinion.

[@sashatulips4631]

58.23 - Anyone who thinks Biden is a 'good soul gentle kind of guy' has not been paying attention.

[@paintedjaguar]

You can say the same about the notion that the Clintons and Obama were just victims of circumstance and really meant well. As opposed to being poli-prostitutes who are just concerned with feathering their own nests and having power.

[@albuterol71]

The disrespect Biden shows to black people should not be ignored yet he gets a pass as he continues to stumble along running the country into the ground… so pathetic 😕

[@brynduffy]

You should have discussed Peter Navarro as well.

[@GETJUSTICE4U]

A democracy is supposed to be a system of government that rules above all, in the best interest of all its peoples. Therefore a government that in the best interests of a minority cohort of monopoly corporate super rich globalists that impoverish the majority of its people is not and cannot be a democracy. Indeed such a system is a Corporatocracy, ie a corporate plutocracy. This is neoliberalism. If every political party served the best interests of the people then the one that did so better than any others would always be the government. Paradoxically this may be described as a dictatorship.

[@joan3347]

I wonder if its possible to ever have someone who isn't biased who could use unemotional labels when discussing both sides of politics. Though he's better than the mainstream and non mainstream media, who are blatantly biased and uninterested in the facts. I find Al Jazeera news coverage refreshing as it doesn't give opinions or use judgemental language which is so refreshing. Even when reporting on Israel. I'm so over listening to opinions rather than facts. Tribalism and ego will always reign supreme no matter how dumb or smart someone is.

[@covid19deltaextrarewardspr88]

I'm from El Salvador I grew up with the Ronald Reagan family and I remember it.

[@digitraxanr]

Eliminating Political Correctness was a big issue in the 2016 election. People were heard saying they wanted to "call a spade a spade again." Racisim was a very big issue in getting Trump elected and maintaining his popularity to this day. Hillary Clinton just wanted to "bring them to heel." Unfortunately, Lee Atwater's Southern Strategy is alive and well.

[@thomaswayne1852]

I’d have agreed with everything said had the video ended on the hour mark. Regards

[@danielhutchinson6604]

The involvement of Robert Mercer and associates seems to indicate that there was more than a casual association between Brexit and Trump becoming a President? The Electoral Industry has few who have attained such a success rate as the Mercer/Bannon organization? Why do you suppose Mercer quit his day job?

[@louisetteist]

They just used him like a PAWN i ,i FELT FOR HIM.,AND THE REST OF US WHO WERE UP FOR A CHANGE!

[@redsed1565]

inspiration - $$$

[@andywomack3414]

It was a Democratic Congress that gave us Supply Side Economics.

[@nancyk7954]

I can hardly believe that I actually heard someone come out and admit Regan came from a neoliberal/ neoconservative position. And that's the truth.

[@BobQuigley]

Thanks again INET, as always enlightenment

[@BobJohnson648]

People began to ask what were we doing in Vietnam...how bout Ukraine?

[@carlbrabant007]

The SBU actions are something normal for someone looking to switch side.

[@charlesmartino1456]

A lot of this damage was self inflicted by the Democrats of Johnson's time. It wasn't just the 1964 Civil Rights Act that set up the Neoliberal movement. It also was the Great Society and the fact it was too hard to manage. Lazy Democrat politicians used the expansion of welfare as a means to buy votes, while Nixon because of his southern strategy expanded welfare to help stay segregated. Almost all of the 70's inflation can be traced Nixon, as Nixon eliminate the Bretton Woods agreement that linked the dollar to gold. Thus as a fossil fuel economy those nations selling us oil where wondering what that dollar true value was worth. Gerald Ford would open a door for the rich to bet against the dollar by allowing Gold to be owned once again as an investment. It was those two events that moved inflation into dangerous territory. So between inflation and what looked at the time to be run away spending, the Democrats seemed incompetent. It was NEVER Reagan's tax cut that moved the economy, it was the expansion of credit that came when smart money realized the dollar was just paper. Where FDR deficit spent building things Future generations would need, Reagan deficit spent stealing future generations wealth. That can be seen in many way now 40 years after the initiation of Supply Side Economic. In 1972 40 years after the New Deal America would see it largest (60%) and Wealthiest Middle Class. I will remind everyone that Middle Class was overwhelmingly made up of Single earner households. Today we mark 40 years of Supply Side economic, our Middle class is about 51%. But if we measure it by the standards of single earner as in 1972. we would see our Middle Class is closer to 30%. All while the income gap has become greater than in the Gilded Age. All the years Republicans have done unfunded tax cut for the rich, we had no inflation. One year of putting money in the hands of people who need it, we have inflation. This inflation is over dramatize by supply chain problems due to Covid. But the real problem is that Democrats are divide into 2 groups, New Deal Democrats and Great Society Democrats! Unfortunately the Democratic party gets recognized as all Great Society, and because of that can not recoup the footing needed to bring America to where Middle Class wins.

[@kassfischer5146]

To anyone interested in this topic, I highly recommend “Breaking Points”, with Krystal and Saagar. It’s on KZbin.

[@indonesiamenggugat8795]

❤❤

[@rmcoi53]

What's with the guy in uniform? All in all an interesting talk.

[@CaptJJYossarian]

Seemed like a great discussion until you got into the Trump and Biden era. Are we only allowed to speak in an opened honest manner when we talk about old business?

[@MickLeonardJD]

I wonder what he will say about the big lie in his next book.

[@philclarke4914]

It strikes me that some of the comments (ie, Z and replies) reveal more plausible and significant observations than the idea/myth of presidential power. Some experts seem to get psychologically trapped or invested in one-track thinking/groupthink.

[@waindayoungthain2147]

I can’t believe it’s the government’s policy for responding anything about human behavior in the USA tills your good faith ending with breaking with emotional 😭 for the government support. It’s no video on .

[@bryandovbergman5654]

Yeah but doesn't that just make Obama selfish that he had to be the guy, when obviously his task would be harder? I mean at a time of national crisis if you know for any reason you're not the best guy for the job .....I mean who's fault is it really? I guess Obama chose to cut Salomon's baby in half. I really feel like you guys are very apologetic for Obama because of his race, which is racist by itself. Thomas Frank is pretty clear Obama had the wind at his back to go full FDR on the bankers on 08. He didn't because he's a neo-liberal dirtbag. I'm from buffalo, graduated 08. I voted for Obama. I laughed my ass off for hours when Trump got to kick that man out of his house

[@katfayegarrett3872]

Hi from Detroit! Really enjoyed this discussion...this new political order (neoliberalism) has crushed the middle class...the so-called Americans dream. Whatever.