by Scott Creighton
Michael Bloomberg is New York City’s billionaire Mayor and he’s a hard-core neoliberal. Just the other day an article was published by the Huffington Post which described Mayor Bloomberg’s 6 step plan to fix the economy. That article has since been removed from the Huffington Post, but I found it for you and I will cross-post it in its entirety. These are Mayor Bloomberg’s “6 steps” to a better economy.
“Bloomberg’s solutions involve six steps: 1) Instill confidence, 2) promote trade, 3) reform regulations, 4) cut business taxes, 5) invest in job training and 6) fix immigration.” Huffington Post
This is John Williamson’s definition of Neoliberalism (the “Washington Consensus”), the same economic “Shock therapy”, created by Milton Friedman at the University of Chicago, that has been inflicted on nations all across the globe via the IMF and World Bank and the “economic hitmen” that serve them:
- Fiscal policy Governments should not run large deficits that have to be paid back by future citizens, and such deficits can only have a short term effect on the level of employment in the economy. Constant deficits will lead to higher inflation and lower productivity, and should be avoided. Deficits should only be used for occasional stabilization purposes.
- Redirection of public spending from subsidies (especially what neoliberals call “indiscriminate subsidies”) and other spending neoliberals deem wasteful toward broad-based provision of key pro-growth, pro-poor services like primary education, primary health care and infrastructure investment
- Tax reform– broadening the tax base and adopting moderate marginal tax rates to encourage innovation and efficiency;
- Interest rates that are market determined and positive (but moderate) in real terms;
- Floating exchange rates;
- Trade liberalization – liberalization of imports, with particular emphasis on elimination of quantitative restrictions (licensing, etc.); any trade protection to be provided by law and relatively uniform tariffs; thus encouraging competition and long term growth
- Liberalization of the “capital account” of the balance of payments, that is, allowing people the opportunity to invest funds overseas and allowing foreign funds to be invested in the home country
- Privatization of state enterprises; Promoting market provision of goods and services which the government can not provide as effectively or efficiently, such as telecommunications, where having many service providers promotes choice and competition.
- Deregulation – abolition of regulations that impede market entry or restrict competition, except for those justified on safety, environmental and consumer protection grounds, and prudent oversight of financial institutions;
- Legal security for property rights; and,
- Financialization of capital.
Deregulation, free trade, and reducing corporate taxes. All of this of course to be set up by the “War on the Deficits”, which is also clearly defined in the neoliberal policy. Another key aspect of neoliberalism is an open border policy which promotes migration of a transient workforce that will undermine wage structure for the benefit of various corporations. Neoliberalism thrives on cheap abundant labor. This is why Mayor Bloomberg is working hard with leaders of major corporations to push for comprehensive immigration reform which will grant amnesty for millions of undocumented workers here in the US and allow for many more to enter the US in a second class citizen status.
“Bloomberg has been especially outspoken on the national stage on the last point. In June, he launched a coalition of CEOs — which includes News Corporation’s Rupert Murdoch and Disney’s Bob Iger — to push for comprehensive immigration reform.” Huffington Post
An important part of the neoliberalization process is the demonization of the poor, making them the scapegoats for the collapsing economy. In so doing, one has to undermine the institutions that help empower the poor and working poor of the nation. For example, remember what they did to ACORN? Even though the video created by that huckster turned out to be clearly fraudulent, the House and Senate still voted to rescind ACORN’s funding, both the republicans and the democrats did that. Hence “the Washington Consensus”.
Well, Mayor Bloomberg is doing a little of his own hatchet work inside New York city. He is actually running an “experiment” to see if one of the city’s programs to help the poor actually helps them. Remarkably, they already have their answer in an official report they did just this year. But you see, that report came back stating that the program helped the poor, so of course, the program had to be undermined.
The New York study involves monitoring 400 households that sought Homebase help between June and August. Two hundred were given the program’s services, and 200 were not. Those denied help by Homebase were given the names of other agencies — among them H.R.A. Job Centers, Housing Court Answers and Eviction Intervention Services — from which they could seek assistance.
Advocates for the homeless said they were puzzled about why the trial was necessary, since the city proclaimed the Homebase program as “highly successful” in the September 2010 Mayor’s Management Report, saying that over 90 percent of families that received help from Homebase did not end up in homeless shelters. One critic of the trial, Councilwoman Annabel Palma, is holding a General Welfare Committee hearing about the program on Thursday.
“I don’t think homeless people in our time, or in any time, should be treated like lab rats,” Ms. Palma said. New York Times
There is nothing puzzling about it; when you have a program that helps 90% of its applicants keep their families in their homes, then the neoliberals definitely want that program gone. Period.
So in order to affect this attack on more poor people, Mayor Bloomberg’s administration basically left 200 families to fend for themselves in the run-up to the winter months.
The study is going to be evaluated by some globalist corporation…the research firm Abt Associates, I wonder what their take on the results will be. Neoliberal mouthpieces in academia are already weighing in with the foregone conclusions that we would expect to see…
“Dennis P. Culhane, a professor of social welfare policy at the University of Pennsylvania, said the New York test was particularly valuable because there was widespread doubt about whether eviction-prevention programs really worked.” New York Times
The current head of Abt Associates, a global corporation, is a former international banker…
“Stan Lukowski is former Chairman and CEO of Eastern Bank Corporation — a position he held from 1992 until his retirement in 2006. Under his direction, Eastern Bank grew to become the largest independent commercial bank in New England, with 72 branches and assets of more than $6 billion. A 30-year Eastern Bank veteran, Stan was previously employed by Arthur Andersen of Hartford, Connecticut where he earned his CPA. He later joined the Boston office of Kidder, Peabody and Company, as a Vice President in the Corporate Finance Department.” Abt Associates website
“Abt Associates solves complex problems in a wide variety of disciplines for governments, international organizations, foundations, nonprofit associations and institutions, and business and industry, worldwide.” Abt Associates website
Yes, Abt Associates is hard at work helping to solve that little problem of the neoliberal need to dismantle a program in New York City that helps the poor keep from living on the streets. Yes, that is 23 million dollars in the Homebase program that could easily be funneled into some sort of public/private partnership scam that could help some wealthy New York businessman buy yet another 5th Ave condo.
Allow me to repeat myself…
Privatization of state enterprises; Promoting market provision of goods and services which the government can not provide as effectively or efficiently, such as telecommunications, where having many service providers promotes choice and competition.
Just like they have handed over programs like food stamps to JPMorgan Chase and the misdemeanor probation program to the Salvation Army, here too they are looking to privatize a 23 million dollar program and unfortunately for them, the cost of creating the narrative that is needed to do this, will be paid by 200 very cold, very scared families.
families
Some might call that economic terrorism. I am one of them. But the neoliberals just don’t care. To them the ends always justifies the means and they never see or feel the collateral damage in their green zone neighborhoods. They ride through the carnage they create in bullet proof SUVs while the FBI is steadily creating more fake terrorist plots to justify putting more and more storm-troopers on the ground to keep the peasants in line. Augusto Pinochet, Suharto, the Shah… they all live here now, they all work on the government payroll.
The $577,000 that Bloomberg authorized to pay Abt Associates for this “study” could have easily gone to help countless New Yorkers stay warm in their homes this winter. But no… the demonization of the latest study is far more important to the soulless blood suckers called neoliberals. 200 families and no telling how many are out on the street right now thanks to Billionaire Bloomberg’s heartless “study” and more will certainly be on their way out onto the streets of New York as soon as Abt Associates releases their “unbiased” study results.
This is the nature of neoliberalism at it’s finest on display in New York city.
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