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Washington's Not-So-Invisible Hand: It's Not Economics, It's Empire
Hirthle, Jason
http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/07/01/washingtons-not-so-invisible-hand-its-not-economics-its-empire/Date Written: 2016-07-01 Publisher: CounterPunch Year Published: 2016 Resource Type: Article Cx Number: CX19665 Scottish philosopher Adam Smith famously noted the "invisible hand" of the market that supposedly shaped the character of economies near and far. The rightwing neoliberal capitalist movement, dominant in the West since the early Seventies, has turned this phrase into the sacrosanct dictum of its secular religion. All human behaviour must be submitted to the "free market." (This is the notional credo, but in practice corporate elites are subsidized, bailout out, and given every possible taxpayer benefit to ensure higher private profits.) So now, when nations fail, it is typically said in the media to be the product of a) a crazed dictator threatening counterintuitive genocide on his own people; or b) foolish state interventions by deranged socialist ideologues. Subject Headings |