Crisis and Restoration of Neoliberal Policy in the USA: 2008–2018

Abstract

ABSTRACTThroughout the twentieth century, American capitalism has proved strategically flexible and successful at periodically restructuring itself to take advantage of global opportunities that arose due to world wars, economic crises, and technological change and innovation. On three major occasions in the twentieth century, the American capitalist system successfully restructured itself. The first and second restructurings occurred during1912–1917 and 1944–1953, respectively. The third restructuring, beginning after 1978, is often identified with what is called neoliberalism. Neoliberalism underwent a period of crisis as a consequence of the 2008–2009 global financial crash and great recession. Its restoration under Obama failed. Beginning in 2017, a new more aggressive and virulent form of neoliberalism has begun to emerge under Trump. Whether the Trump restoration of a new neoliberalism 2.0 will succeed has yet to be determined. And should it fail, will that failure usher in a transition period in the US and global economy in the 2020s decade that will lead to a fundamentally different US and global economic restructuring after 2020? What lies ahead in the remaining two years of the Trump regime, 2019–2020, will likely answer these questions.