Crises all around: Do recent predicaments and their responses imperil ‘neoliberalism’?

Abstract

The announcement of a record trade surplus for Norway in 2022, and a proposal to create a guarantee fund for investments in renewable energy for Ukraine, Europe and beyond, indicate how the economic and financial situation of the Norwegian state is intimately linked to the predicaments or crises that pertain to the contemporary world. While these phenomena at first glance appear legible in terms of neoliberalism, the article sketches how they instead concern a longstanding history and experience, where commercial corporations, financial markets and private profits are deployed for public benefit. While these dynamics suggest that neoliberalism never was relevant for the Norwegian context, the ascendancy of similar notions and practices elsewhere raises the question of whether current predicaments and their policy responses also spell a crisis for this analytic. Is it time to let the concept go?