Neoliberalism is a set of economic policies that have become widespread during the last 30 years or so, bringing misery to people and the environment as well as war and economic collapse, terrorism and a new form of gullible individualism. Consumerism has become so extensive that even electoral politics have become a matter of individual choice on the market. What is economic is deeply political – it is impossible to split the two. I maintain that neoliberalism is a purely political project to maximise profits, and it is not in the best interests of workers. It is a phase of capitalism in which speculative finance capital dominates the productive, real economy and finance houses to achieve, in a new way, dominance over national governments.

Creating the monster

‘Neoliberalism’ means a ‘new’ kind of liberalism. So what was the old kind? The liberal school of economics became famous in Europe when Adam Smith, a Scottish economist, published a book in 1776 called The wealth of nations (Smith, 1776). He and others advocated the abolition of government intervention in economic matters. No restrictions on manufacturing, no barriers to commerce, no tariffs, Smith said; free trade was the best way for a nation’s economy to develop. Such ideas were ‘liberal’ in the sense of not having any controls.