Indi and PLainTalk

I read this three times and finally decided I'd better ask you two what you meant.

For thirty years I thought neo-liberalism was an economic theory expounded by conservatives - Milton Friedman, the Chicago School of Economics, Reagan, Thatcher and the mess in Chile. I thought neo-liberalism was all about Free Markets, lower taxes, smaller government, de-regulation and ending social safety net programs so we were free to realize our individual potential.

I associated neo-liberal economics with neo-conservatives in the Bush administration.

Ever since Obama's election, I keep running into people who say I'm wrong. that neo-liberalism was a liberal project - a far left project. I kept ruminating on it and finally landed on Clinton.

I thought Bill Clinton surrendered and handed the country over to conservatives' and "their" neo-liberal economic theories. When Clinton unleashed conservative's long held dream of globalization, I dove into Democratic Party politics. Hold on here folks, Clinton is driving us over a cliff.

Since I'm on a roll, might as well keep rolling.

Now it occurs to me, that Clinton inadvertently ended up owning neo-liberalism. Clinton preached globalization constantly and that was the first time most people I knew had ever heard of it.

Part of the problem is terminology. People connect economic systems with political systems and use the terminology interchangeably. For example, socialism and communism. Or democracy and capitalism.

Up until Reagan, most of the free world had liberal economies. The conservatives HATED liberal economics and went to work developing NEO-liberal economic theories. NEO - as in NEW.

The term itself is deceiving - NEO-liberalism sounds like its a liberal project. Conservatives calling their economic theory neo-liberalism makes no sense - right? If it was a conservative project they would have called it neo-conservatism - which in fact they did, but when it crashed the whole effing global economy, conservatives happily blamed the left.

As a result, Americans blame the left for neo-liberalism.

Well, now that I've laid out my understanding, can you, will you set me straight?