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Contours of Descent: U.S. Economic Fractures and the Landscape of Global Austerity
In the past twenty-five years the free-market neoliberal model has been hailed as a panacea for economic ills in both the advanced economies and the developing world. Pollin dissects this model as it has been implemented in the US during the Clinton and Bush administrations under Greenspan’s Chairmanship of the Federal Reserve, and in developing countries under the auspices of the IMF.
Clinton’s Third Way policies were hailed as combining a pro-business stance with social responsibility. This approach seemed to be vindicated by the extraordinary fall in both inflation and unemployment. In fact, the apparent successes of the Clinton years were based on anti-labor policies, the stagnation of real wages, deregulation of financial markets, and an historically unprecedented stock market boom. Even before 9/11 there were indications that the Clinton bubble would collapse into recession. Bush’s response was to give big tax breaks to the rich, introduce more anti-labor measures, and cut social spending at both the federal and state levels.
Both Clinton and Bush have applied free-market policies only selectively within the US itself, when such policies have most benefited the interests of business. At the same time, through the IMF, the US has compelled developing countries to slash public spending, deregulate financial markets and dismantle trade barriers virtually across the board. Argentina’s embrace of this policy package culminated in financial ruin. Throughout Asia and Africa, sweatshops and poverty are the testaments to a bankrupt economic model.
Pollin concludes by exploring concrete proposals that would promote full employment, economic growth and increased equality in the US and throughout the less developed countries, drawing ong the spreading movements for living wages, the Tobin Tax on financial speculation, and more generally workable alternatives to neoliberal globalization.
Clinton’s Third Way policies were hailed as combining a pro-business stance with social responsibility. This approach seemed to be vindicated by the extraordinary fall in both inflation and unemployment. In fact, the apparent successes of the Clinton years were based on anti-labor policies, the stagnation of real wages, deregulation of financial markets, and an historically unprecedented stock market boom. Even before 9/11 there were indications that the Clinton bubble would collapse into recession. Bush’s response was to give big tax breaks to the rich, introduce more anti-labor measures, and cut social spending at both the federal and state levels.
Both Clinton and Bush have applied free-market policies only selectively within the US itself, when such policies have most benefited the interests of business. At the same time, through the IMF, the US has compelled developing countries to slash public spending, deregulate financial markets and dismantle trade barriers virtually across the board. Argentina’s embrace of this policy package culminated in financial ruin. Throughout Asia and Africa, sweatshops and poverty are the testaments to a bankrupt economic model.
Pollin concludes by exploring concrete proposals that would promote full employment, economic growth and increased equality in the US and throughout the less developed countries, drawing ong the spreading movements for living wages, the Tobin Tax on financial speculation, and more generally workable alternatives to neoliberal globalization.
- GenresEconomicsNonfiction
270 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 2003
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
August 20, 2014
Is it possible to critique the Washington consensus using its language?
[Through my ratings, reviews and edits I'm providing intellectual property and labor to Amazon.com Inc., listed on Nasdaq, which fully owns Goodreads.com and in 2013 posted revenues for $74 billion and $274 million profits. Intellectual property and labor require compensation. Amazon.com Inc. is also requested to provide assurance that its employees and contractors' work conditions meet the highest health and safety standards at all the company's sites].
Well-meaning, but inevitably very high level in its coverage of too much ground. A technical and non rhetoric exposé of neoliberalism from inside the establishment (the economist profession), still captive though to the typically dumb NBER or Brookings Institution working paper language and style that are so integral to the mainstream misunderstanding of the economy (in this very far for instance from the referenced Ha-Joon Chang's polemic and narrative style - see his Bad Samaritans: The Myth of Free Trade and the Secret History of Capitalism]). Economic quantities for example (unemployment rates, income distribution, wage growth) are taken at face value (without questioning how they are defined and then cooked). The result is a balanced but not in-depth critique of neoliberalism, with very conservative recommendations. Also too reliant on journalistic sources (rather than original research). A pre-Shock Doctrine editorial product.
Its major contribution is the early record of the traumatizing effects of neoliberalism in the US, where job insecurity is identified as Clinton's defining legacy, and in the peripheral countries (notably, India and Argentina).
The author's critical review of Greenspan's monetary and regulatory policy was prescient.
[Through my ratings, reviews and edits I'm providing intellectual property and labor to Amazon.com Inc., listed on Nasdaq, which fully owns Goodreads.com and in 2013 posted revenues for $74 billion and $274 million profits. Intellectual property and labor require compensation. Amazon.com Inc. is also requested to provide assurance that its employees and contractors' work conditions meet the highest health and safety standards at all the company's sites].
Well-meaning, but inevitably very high level in its coverage of too much ground. A technical and non rhetoric exposé of neoliberalism from inside the establishment (the economist profession), still captive though to the typically dumb NBER or Brookings Institution working paper language and style that are so integral to the mainstream misunderstanding of the economy (in this very far for instance from the referenced Ha-Joon Chang's polemic and narrative style - see his Bad Samaritans: The Myth of Free Trade and the Secret History of Capitalism]). Economic quantities for example (unemployment rates, income distribution, wage growth) are taken at face value (without questioning how they are defined and then cooked). The result is a balanced but not in-depth critique of neoliberalism, with very conservative recommendations. Also too reliant on journalistic sources (rather than original research). A pre-Shock Doctrine editorial product.
Its major contribution is the early record of the traumatizing effects of neoliberalism in the US, where job insecurity is identified as Clinton's defining legacy, and in the peripheral countries (notably, India and Argentina).
The author's critical review of Greenspan's monetary and regulatory policy was prescient.
October 23, 2008
It's like the Clinton and Bush administrations demonstrated the unholy union of neoliberalis and neoconservatism.
November 9, 2023
A good read with a range of insightful breakdowns of the late clinton and first bush presidential terms. Much like other analyses in this category, places most of its emphasis on neoliberalism, rather than the inadequacy of capitalist production itself, which was plummeting before the neoliberal era. As such, it also can't go much further than advocate for increased protections and bargaining power for workers. The chapters on global austerity are also great
September 4, 2013
NEOLIBERALISM, THE CLINTON "BOOM" AND PROSPECTS FOR REFORM
Robert Pollins short 2003 book, "Contours of Descent", focuses on the record of the American economy during the Neoliberal era with particular regard to the Clinton boom, and the first two years of the Bush II administration which the author claims is the most partisan for the rich, and anti-labour in decades.
The record of the much acclaimed Clinton boom is hardly fantastic, and put in the context of the post war American economy it is at best mediocre, contained the seeds of the 2001 recession, and played an essential role on the road to the post 2007 crisis of capitalism. Pollin collates a wonderful collection of economic statistics that clearly illustrate the effect of Neoliberalism. Declining real wages for the average American worker; and growth - which if its considered over the whole economic cycle and not just for the "fortunate" years of the Clinton boom - can only be regarded as meagre. One graph illustrating the divergence between productivity growth and wages is a stark reminder of the inverted class war that has been the mainstay of American politics for thirty odd years.
After dissecting the Neoliberal era in the United States, Pollin moves on to consider it in relation to the Least Developed Countries. The statistics regarding economic inequality at the global level make crystal clear why that oft cited figure of recent times - the 1% - is totally correct with regard to who the benificaries are in these scoundrel times where the richest 1% have became 68% better off in relation to the poorest 1%. The three case studies presented (Suicides and Indian Farmers, the Argentinian crash, and the Growth of Sweatshop Labour) are interesting though limitations of space make them far from comprehensive.
Pollin himself is one who looks to reform the capitalist system and he makes a case for some relatively straightforward changes along those lines in his last chapter with a view to clamping down on speculative unproductive "investment", increasing employment and decreasing income inequality, amongst other objectives. Of course these views, variants of which have been put forward by a number of economists, remained in the margins, and the Neoliberal era rumbled on to a grinding halt in 2007-08.
Though written in a strangely sedate prose "Contours of Descent" is a clear and concise exposition of the reality of the Neoliberal era, and despite its advancing years its still a book that is immensely relevant. If the reader is interested in the particulars of the Clinton era then Doug Henwoods "After the New Economy" and Joseph Stiglitzs "The Roaring Nineties" are essential reading. On Neoliberalism itself a key text is undoubtedly David Harveys brilliant "A Brief History of Neoliberalism".
Robert Pollins short 2003 book, "Contours of Descent", focuses on the record of the American economy during the Neoliberal era with particular regard to the Clinton boom, and the first two years of the Bush II administration which the author claims is the most partisan for the rich, and anti-labour in decades.
The record of the much acclaimed Clinton boom is hardly fantastic, and put in the context of the post war American economy it is at best mediocre, contained the seeds of the 2001 recession, and played an essential role on the road to the post 2007 crisis of capitalism. Pollin collates a wonderful collection of economic statistics that clearly illustrate the effect of Neoliberalism. Declining real wages for the average American worker; and growth - which if its considered over the whole economic cycle and not just for the "fortunate" years of the Clinton boom - can only be regarded as meagre. One graph illustrating the divergence between productivity growth and wages is a stark reminder of the inverted class war that has been the mainstay of American politics for thirty odd years.
After dissecting the Neoliberal era in the United States, Pollin moves on to consider it in relation to the Least Developed Countries. The statistics regarding economic inequality at the global level make crystal clear why that oft cited figure of recent times - the 1% - is totally correct with regard to who the benificaries are in these scoundrel times where the richest 1% have became 68% better off in relation to the poorest 1%. The three case studies presented (Suicides and Indian Farmers, the Argentinian crash, and the Growth of Sweatshop Labour) are interesting though limitations of space make them far from comprehensive.
Pollin himself is one who looks to reform the capitalist system and he makes a case for some relatively straightforward changes along those lines in his last chapter with a view to clamping down on speculative unproductive "investment", increasing employment and decreasing income inequality, amongst other objectives. Of course these views, variants of which have been put forward by a number of economists, remained in the margins, and the Neoliberal era rumbled on to a grinding halt in 2007-08.
Though written in a strangely sedate prose "Contours of Descent" is a clear and concise exposition of the reality of the Neoliberal era, and despite its advancing years its still a book that is immensely relevant. If the reader is interested in the particulars of the Clinton era then Doug Henwoods "After the New Economy" and Joseph Stiglitzs "The Roaring Nineties" are essential reading. On Neoliberalism itself a key text is undoubtedly David Harveys brilliant "A Brief History of Neoliberalism".
November 4, 2008
Changed my life. I don't know if I would be as captivated with it now, but I introduced economics to me and I took it from there.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews