IMF Report on Neoliberalism's Failures Is Revolutionary

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IMF Report on Neoliberalism's Failures Is Revolutionary

It takes courage to openly state what the International Monetary Fund's researchers are saying. Such a statement would have been inconceivable five years ago.

Nitzan Horowitz May 31, 2016

Only a few minutes’ stroll along Pennsylvania Avenue separates the massive complex of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund from the much smaller White House. Perhaps the size difference symbolizes the relative degree of importance and the center of gravity: the economic headquarters are the real fulcrum of power; the White House is for tourists.

Ever since these two economic institutions were founded at the end of World War II, they’ve affected people’s lives far more than any U.S. president or the prime minister of any country. The IMF and World Bank are not only powerful executive instruments; they’re also ideological bodies. For more than 70 years, they’ve served as the most effective disseminator of a clear political ideology: the rule of capital. This is why what’s just happened can be likened to an earthquake.

Senior economists at the IMF, not usually people suspected of having a shred of sympathy for social ideals, have dropped a bombshell. “Neoliberalism: Oversold?” – a report published in the IMF’s flagship magazine – determines that the neoliberal approach, which has shaped the world for the last two generations, has failed. http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-1.722368