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Inequality is rising, people are struggling it doesn't feel to me this is the right thing to do. The economy has not been well even before Covid. Even the markets are reacting badly to it.
The Covid issue was indeed part monetary policy but in the USA those median income and over were OK and got richer (not just the super rich, which fared EVEN better) and those below, well, things got even worse.
Perhaps it's not "extreme" neoliberalism but it is, to me, a continuing trend of screwing things up for far too many people. And in mainland Europe this is leading to openly* racist/xenophobic/fascist parties getting votes.
Perhaps in the early 00's all this was fine, but now we are facing a period of long recession (not just in the UK) with interest rates that have nothing to do with too much spending power for most people/too much business expansion and investment. So to me it is utter nuts to do this thinking "it will work out this time". These rising interest rates combined with inflation on food and heating are just going to hit people, and you cannot exactly stop eating or eating.
Unless they really WANT to make a mess. But perhaps they are just not really thinking about it and wanting to keep their donors happy.
*(the Tories, cha, looking at the Home Office, policing bill, panicking about a few thousand refugees (mostly) arriving on boats, nearly reverting some human rights laws, Brexit and all that they have some work to do)
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JWestland
I think that's taking it a bit far. "Extreme neoliberalism" would be something like the 10% flat tax on personal income that they have in Bulgaria - as I posted upthread this change taxes income taxes back to where they were during the Blair years, albeit with lower real-terms thresholds.
Similarly, if you look at tax and spend as a % of GDP (excluding the energy bailout) it will not be out of line from what was normal in the early 00's.
To the point about the rich getting richer during COVID, that was an inevitable consequence of monetary expansion and low rates - with rates rising world wide, I think you could say that "this time it's different"...