“Neoliberalism” as defined by Investopedia is: a policy model that encompasses both politics and economics and seeks to transfer the control of the public sector to the private sector.

I recently finished reading Globalists: The End of Empire and the Birth of Neoliberalism by Quinn Slobodian. The 1920s collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire is where the book begins, which I vaguely remember learning about in high school. Slobodian traces neoliberalism back to European strategists at that time – members of the Geneva School – who were concerned that decolonization would allow emerging nations of the global south to become economic equals.

Neoliberalism wasn’t spawned by one political party. It really isn’t interested in that kind of social responsibility. It is an economic ideology, utilizing law and legal frameworks to protect the profits of corporations. Western-led corporations, of course.

The “New World Order” was a rumor I heard rumblings about when George W. Bush was president. It was assumed in my progressive California circles that this was always a Republican strategy. Given the tactics used in Bush’s presidency, that didn’t seem off base. World History class in high school was where I watched the War in the Gulf on tv (replete with theme music and cheesy graphics). That happened during Bush Sr’s reign – another Republican-led, angsty time in the early 90s.

When Bill Clinton became president and Americans swooned when his democratic presidency boosted the U.S. economy, I noticed a few things that seemed off.  NAFTA was signed into law under Clinton. If you asked a Canadian working in the U.S. up to 5 years ago, they would likely praise NAFTA. When you research what happened to Mexico, Central and South America, NAFTA looks a lot more insidious.

While manufacturing increased in countries like Mexico, their market was flooded with highly subsidized U.S. products, chiefly corn. This forced millions of small scale Mexican farmers off their land. Hourly compensation, which was already low, fell by 20%, forcing many Mexican workers to cross the border into California, Arizona and Texas to find work. NAFTA was great economically if you were a U.S. citizen, but not so great if you lived anywhere south of the border.

Cultural racism plays a key role in the neoliberal agenda. Slobodian points out that key players Friedrich Hayek, Wilhem Ropke and Ludwig von Mises were concerned by the repercussions of European empires disintegrating. To them, the populations of Africa and Asia were “primitive”—uneducated and incapable of maintaining the rule of law or protecting private property. The supranational framework they designed was meant to serve as a legal chokehold, ensuring that even if these nations gained political sovereignty, their economic resources would be subservient to Western capital.

It’s easy to forget that decolonization is not just a social justice movement. It was the formal distancing of the modern economy, founded by the United States, from monarchical rule. Colonies were established by monarchies. Monarchies were run by unelected nobility. The transfer of wealth from royal bloodlines to bastions of economic liberty wasn’t really about saving the masses from tyranny. That was just the tagline.

The neoliberal agenda not only got to dictate the terms of these economic agreements. They also created a debt-based economy that was fiscally, socially and politically irresponsible. “Encasing” the economy, or protecting it from national sovereignty and democratic overreach, was the ultimate neoliberal goal.

I’m not trying to be a downer after the recent Democratic win. I’ve been saying for years how both Republicans and Democrats are equally compromised. Whether or not they can help it, it is built into the system. They work for the corporate interests who care more about profitability than people. That is not an opinion. Of course there are some members of both parties who get into politics for noble reasons; however, they are often met with controlling, fierce opposition.

The AI tech revolution is emerging as the alleged savior of capitalism. According to neoliberals, the sovereign debt crisis is a necessary part of the plan. AI functions both as an extension of neoliberal design and as a tool that accelerates the erosion of nation-state authority. It’s a world run by western technocrats who think you can control economic cycles by automating everything with machines.

AI operates on a hyper-concentrated infrastructure – controlled by a select few multinational corporations – that can bypass local jurisdiction. Power eventually shifts from national legislation to corporate service level agreements (SLAs – make sure you read the fine print on these, as tedious as that is).

What neoliberals didn’t account for is the inevitable rise of the global south. Bully enough countries who have vast amounts of natural resources, plus smarter ways of securing those resources, and sooner or later you’ll see the playing field shift. The cheap costs of goods and materials you once manipulated are suddenly a lot more expensive – or unavailable. Next, you find yourself drowning in a debt cycle that you cannot legislate your way out of — even in the best of circumstances. This is where we are now.

BRICS nations (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) have had about 16 years to get their ducks in a row. They are maintaining their sovereign power while learning how to negotiate how global trade could evolve.  S. Yash Kalash wrote an article for CIGI Online about the 3 different options BRICS currently faces.

Project Nexus is the Bank of International Settlements (BIS) and India’s idea to connect existing domestic instant-payment systems through standardized links. It isn’t operational yet, but this approach would not require countries to introduce a common currency or launch CBDCs (central bank digital currencies) first.

Project mBridge began as a BIS initiative, but since China’s involvement and its desire to internationalize the digital Yuan, the BIS backed out (incidentally, the BIS is a western institution, founded in 1930). Project mBridge requires a shared ledger for cross-border wholesale transactions, potentially using multiple CBDCs. The U.S. has rejected the adoption of CBDCs due to concerns about privacy and consumer autonomy.

Project Agora is another BIS (western) initiative, involving 41 private financial institutions. This combines tokenized commercial bank deposits with tokenized central bank reserves. The project’s goal is to completely overhaul the plumbing of the global financial system—by utilizing blockchain-inspired tokenization. The design of Project Agora aligns with the neoliberal fixation on legal encasing and institutional control. You can see why this is the flagship proposal of the west.