Saturday, May 14, 2016

Branko Milanovic — Why “Make America Denmark Again” will not happen


The conditions that lead to les trentes glorieuses (years between 1945 and 1975) are gone and not coming back.

The new normal is neoliberal globalization rather than playing catch up after the Great Depression and WWII. 

Moreover, changes in technology that have produced a very different business environment and approach to commerce.

The former leveling factors are no longer present, and it's back to the Gilded Age in another form.

Until conditions shift again.

Denmark isn't even Denmark anymore, and neither is Sweden, Sweden. Scandinavia has neoliberalized, too.

Global Inequality
Why “Make America Denmark Again” will not happen
Branko Milanovic | Visiting Presidential Professor at City University of New York Graduate Center and senior scholar at the Luxembourg Income Study (LIS), and formerly lead economist in the World Bank's research department and senior associate at Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

3 comments:

Calgacus said...

What a load of nonsense from Milanovic. Skepticism? - of the usual modern sort, that is skeptical of everything but itself, that doubts this or that - but never thinks about whether the doubts are more dubious than what is being doubted.

There was one and only one "condition" that led to "les trentes glorieuses". The impatient worldwide decisions to not listen to such BS, of peoples deciding to have a "trente glorieuses" then. Nothing else.

Dan Lynch said...

@Calgacus, people rise up when they are starving, or when they are outraged by some heinous crime (i.e., the murder of Emmett Till, the beating of Rodney King, etc..).

The neoliberal era is unpleasant but Americans are not actually starving. Yet.

Agree with the author that "globalization" has been a huge driver of the neoliberal economy. But globalization is no longer popular. The 99% have figured out that "free trade" is a racket that empowers the 1% and disempowers the 99%, MMT "exports are real costs and imports are real benefits" not withstanding.

Nationalism and isolationism have reared their heads before. They may rear their heads again, but perhaps not until people are starving.

Calgacus said...

The most important thing is not the rising up, but the decision to stop listening to BS. Plenty of Americans are doing badly and rightly outraged - look at the success of Trump & Sanders.

Bill Mitchell just tried to get people to think clearly on the issues- The Left confuses globalisation with neo-liberalism and gets lost - without much success I think. For free trade isn't a racket & is perfectly consistent with a nation deciding to have functional finance and full employment. There are many worse things than nationalism & isolationism.