Neoliberalism and Limits of Globalization

Neoliberalism is a term used to define a conservative set of programs that governed the world system and economy since the 1970s.  Although conservative politicians do no like the label it is now used to describe the global policies that were promoted by the American political administration of President Ronald Reagan in United States (ruled 1981-1989) and of Margaret Thatcher, the Prime Minister of Great Britain (ruled 1979-1990).  Thatcher believed in selling off public or government owned assets, and to break up labor unions and to reduce government spending on areas like welfare, children's care, medical care and education.  Ronald Reagan also believed in reducing taxes on the wealthy and reducing government regulations.  Both Reagan and Thatcher were obsessed with winning the Cold War against the Soviet Union and other late communist governments, such as China and Cuba. 

This website from CorpWatch has a good summary of the main principles of Neoliberal international policies

1. THE RULE OF THE MARKET. Liberating "free" enterprise or private enterprise from any bonds imposed by the government (the state) no matter how much social damage this causes. Greater openness to international trade and investment, as in NAFTA. Reduce wages by de-unionizing workers and eliminating workers' rights that had been won over many years of struggle. No more price controls. All in all, total freedom of movement for capital, goods and services. To convince us this is good for us, they say "an unregulated market is the best way to increase economic growth, which will ultimately benefit everyone." It's like Reagan's "supply-side" and "trickle-down" economics -- but somehow the wealth didn't trickle down very much.
   
2. CUTTING PUBLIC EXPENDITURE FOR SOCIAL SERVICES like education and health care. REDUCING THE SAFETY-NET FOR THE POOR, and even maintenance of roads, bridges, water supply -- again in the name of reducing government's role. Of course, they don't oppose government subsidies and tax benefits for business.
   
3. DEREGULATION. Reduce government regulation of everything that could diminsh profits, including protecting the environmentand safety on the job.
   
4. PRIVATIZATION. Sell state-owned enterprises, goods and services to private investors. This includes banks, key industries, railroads, toll highways, electricity, schools, hospitals and even fresh water. Although usually done in the name of greater efficiency, which is often needed, privatization has mainly had the effect of concentrating wealth even more in a few hands and making the public pay even more for its needs.
   
5. ELIMINATING THE CONCEPT OF "THE PUBLIC GOOD" or "COMMUNITY" and replacing it with "individual responsibility." Pressuring the poorest people in a society to find solutions to their lack of health care, education and social security all by themselves -- then blaming them, if they fail, as "lazy."  (Source:  Corpwatch http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=376)
6. To this should be added FINANCIALIZATION OF THE ECONOMY.  In an age of global economies that reward high risk by encouraging investors to speculate with their money, the result was a global economy increasingly at risk of crash as in the 2008 financial crisis.  Financialization emphasizes enabling or making it easier for investors to move large amounts of money across borders to invest as they please with little or no taxes or regulation.  Banks are increasingly encouraged and also subject to conditions of illegal money laundering and transfers of moneys at faster and riskier rates. Financialization of the economy is also a threat to local industrial jobs as it emphasizes greater investment in high tech, financial services firms and other industries that do not provide long-term sustainable jobs, but instead hire and fire employees for the short term need [1].

The internationalization of the economy also depends on several major international financial institutions, like the World Bank (International Bank for Reconstruction and Development) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).  The IMF in particular has a conflicted history of intervention in the countries of Latin America and now Greece where it imposes severe conditions for repayment of national debts.  

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[1] For a standard macroeconomic view that defends the place of financialization as part of a diversification, see Till van Treeck, "The political economy debate on ‘financialization’ – a macroeconomic perspective, Review of International Political Economy  Vol. 16, Iss. 5, 2009)  A more critical or skeptical approach is found in  Michael Collins, "The Financialization of the Economy Hurts Manufacturing," Industry Week (Sep 25, 2015)