Vol.8, No 4, 2011 pp. 447 - 463
UDC 330.342.14:338.124.4
NEOLIBERAL CAPITALISM THROUGH THE CURTAIN OF THE ECONOMIC CRISIS
Ana D. Anufrijev1, Đurđica Đ. Vukajlović2, Milan Lj. Stamatović3
1Business School – Čačak, Modern Business School, Belgrade, Serbia
2Faculty of Economics and Engineering Management, Novi Sad, Serbia
3Metropolitan University, Belgrade, Serbia
ana.anufrijev@mbs.edu.rs
The history of capitalism consists of different phases. Neoliberalism is the last one. That is a completely new type of capitalism, i.e. its reincarnation, well-known for its violence. It can be said that it started in 1979 with Volcker's increase stop, but also with the revolutions in Chile and Argentina during 1970s or with the governments of Margaret Thacher in Britain and Ronal Reagan in the USA. The center of Neoliberalism is in the USA where financialization and financial hegemony reached its peak, based on the assumption that the free market, as a self-regulating system, by the power of its "invisible hand" allocates the resources and ensures peace and well-being to all the peoples of the world in an efficient way. However, this doctrine has not bypassed the countries of Eastern Europe, since it was proclamed as the holy trinity of Washington Concensus – liberalization, deregulation and privatisation. Thus, neoliberal market fundamentalism has boiled down to the glorification of market and eliminating the state monitoring of economy.
Does the world economic crisis present the end of this hegemonistic economic system? The current economic crisis has been caused by the crisis of subprime mortgage loans that resulted in mortgage balloon explosion. It started during 2006 by structural crisis due to the hyper-production in car industry and the crisis of real estate market in the USA. A rapid plummet of inflated prices of residential and commercial properties has resulted in decline in property values thus jeopardizing mortgage system and all its derivatives that existed thanking to real estates whose value decreased. Besides, three American, as well as some European and Japanese, car manufacturers have noted steep falls in sales. Thus, the crisis that has been spoken and written about for full two years is not only a world financial crisis, but a comprehensive crisis of the Western civilization that has overflowed to all the parts of the world.
As for Serbia, it faced the world economic crisis in the middle of its own crises in economic, social and political spheres. In other words, local and global crises have crossovered and poured into a dangerous flow. In plans and forecasts that are aimed at recovery, we cannot close our eyes in front of dramatic economic indicators. Unfortunatelly, the possibilities of recovery are, thus, more than modest.
Key Words: neoliberal capitalism, hegemony, privatization, makroeconomic indicators
NEOLIBERALNI KAPITALIZAM KROZ ZAVESU EKONOMSKE KRIZE
Istorijat kapitalizma poznaje različite faze. Neoliberalizam je poslednja. To je potpuno novi oblik kapitalizma, tačnije njegova reinkarnacija karakterističan po svojoj nasilnosti. Može se reći da je započeo 1979. godine sa Volker Stop povećanjima, ali i pučem u Čileu i Argentini 70-tih godina XX veka, ili sa vladom Margaret Tačer u Britaniji i Ronalda Regana u SAD. Žarište neoliberalizma su SAD u kojima je finansijalizacija i finansijska hegemonija dostigla svoj vrhunac, bazirajući se na pretpostavci da slobodno tržište, kao samoregulišući sistem snagom svoje "nevidljive ruke" efikasno raspodeljuje resurse i osigurava narodima sveta mir i blagostanje. Medjutim ova doktrine nije zaobišla ni zemlje Istočne Evrope, jer je u njima proklamovana kao sveto trojstvo Vašingtonskog koncenzusa – liberalizacija, deregulacija i privatizacija. Dakle, neoliberalni tržišni fundamentalizam svodio se na glorifikaciju tržišta i eliminisanje državnog nadzora nad ekonomijom.
Da li je svetska ekonomska kriza kraj ovog hegemonističkog ekonomskog sistema? Trenutna ekonomska kriza je prouzrokovana krizom drugorazrednih hipotekarnih kredita koja je dovela do pucanja hipotekarnog balona. Ona je počela tokom 2006. godine strukturnom krizom zbog hiperprodukcije u automobilskoj industriji i krizom tržišta nekretnina u SAD. Rapidan sunovrat napumpanih cena stambenih i poslovnih objekata, doveo je do pada vrednosti nekretnina i samim tim ugrozio hipotekarni sistem i sve njegove derivate, čije su postojanje osiguravale upravo nekretnine kojima je vrednost devalvirala. Pored toga tri američke, kao i neke evropske i japanske, automobilske kompanije su doživele nagli pad prodaje Dakle, kriza o kojoj se pune dve godine govori i piše nije samo svetska finansijska kriza, već sveukupna kriza savremene civilizacije Zapada koja se prelila na sve delove sveta.
Kada je o Srbiji reč, ona se sa svetskom ekonomskom krizom susrela u vrtlogu vlastite krize u ekonomskoj, socijalnoj i političkoj sferi. Drugim rečima, lokalna i globalna kriza su se ukrstile i slile u opasan tok. U planovima i predvidjanjima koja za cilj treba da imaju oporavak, ne smeju se zatvarati oči pred dramatičnim ekonomskim pokazateljima. Na žalost, mogućnosti oporavka s toga su, više nego skromne.
Ključne reči: neoliberalni kapitalizam, hegemonija, privatizacija, makroekonomski pokazatelji
