Re-Thinking Neo Liberalism and the Global Economy

It was another bit of bad news about a major corporation from CBC News:

Once a high-flying darling of the technology sector and a stock market heavyweight, Nortel Networks filed for bankruptcy protection on Wednesday in a Delaware court.

But it was this response from a Canadian reader that seemed to hit the right note for me, and maybe for you, when it comes to rethinking our “global economy.”

karlb/ wrote: Posted 2009/01/14. I wonder how long it will take before our Parliamentarians realize we are not in a normal rhythm of recession and recovery. We have passed a tipping point, and this see saw does not have the means of a recovery. Specifically what has led us to this is the Neo-Liberal Free Trade, laissez-faire policies that has sparked a world wide economic collapse. That is in progress, we have not yet reached the precipice, but we are on the edge. Nortel represented one of the last private institutions of high level techological research and development in Canada. It has existed for over a century in some guise, survived the Great Depression, which shows the depth of the catastrophe that is upon us.

There is a way to manage this massive free fall, to allow the prospect of recovery, but our leadership, in both the Conservative and Liberal parties will not even acknowledge we are in anything but a transitory 'correction'. Those remedial policies involve reversing the disastrous policies of Classic British Liberalism, that of Adam Smith, David Ricardo, Thomas Malthus, that have ruled Western economies since the dismantling of the Bretton Woods Agreement in 1971. Free Trade must be seen for what it is, a failure and a fraud.

All Free Trade Agreements need to be abrogated. The WTO must be reduced to an agent of national governments in regulating bilateral trade agreements, rather than as a shill for the predatory international investment organism. Monetarism, the global casino of currency and credit, must be completely re-organized by re-instituting fixed and stable rates of currency exchange. The gigantic monetary derivatives bubble must be deflated in as orderly fashion as possible.

The IMF must be reined in to protecting national sovereignty rather than promoting the interests of international finance. A massive effort by government to re-establish credit and confidence on a national basis, the re-nationalization of banking and currency sovereignty is implicit with this. Without these efforts Nortel is just the start of what lies in store for the rest of Canadian Economy.

Protectionism? Yes, and it's about time.