Comments on: How the media forgot about the financial crisis and embraced austerity

By: Alasdair Macdonald

Alasdair Macdonald — Mon, 18 Jun 2018 22:11:00 +0000

BC, I make a stronger statement than ‘gone along with’. I think they are part and parcel of the conspiracy, given the patterns of ownership, as you point out yourself in your first response.
Angry Moderate specifically mentions the Tories, but ‘new’ Labour continued the policies. They made some moves towards redistribution, but, Brown’s and Darling’s beneficence towards the robber baron failing banks, simply gave Messrs Cameron, CVlegg and Osborne the pretext for reversing the redistributions within a short time after their election in 2010.
I remember, shortly after Labour was elected in 1997 thinking of the John Cleese character in ‘Clockwise’ who ‘could not stand the hope’ and musing that, perhaps the task of the new Labour government was to destroy hope. I think it substantially did that with so many people simply refusing to participate in elections. The 2014 referendum showed that when there was a real issue properly discussed at the grassroots level, people would engage with politics.

By: BC

BC — Sun, 17 Jun 2018 16:49:00 +0000

Agreed. The real blame lies with the oligarchs – especially Koch – and the politicians who based their careers on their patronage. With the exception of James Buchanan, the academics have mostly been politically clueless useful idiots. But, as Alasdair points out above, the media have gone along with the whole conspiracy.

By: ANGRY_MODERATE

ANGRY_MODERATE — Sun, 17 Jun 2018 11:02:00 +0000

To be fair to the original neoliberals, such as von Hayek, I do not think they intended this outcome or even imagined that it could occur. Possibly, it was not inevitable. Regardless, the primary responsibility lies with right wing politicians (in the UK, starting with Thatcher and including about 90% of the Tory party) who have eagerly implemented disgusting policies over many decades. We should also blame the international organisations employing economists and touting nothing but neoliberal propaganda and policies — specifically, the IMF and OECD.

By: BC

BC — Sun, 17 Jun 2018 10:45:00 +0000

Yes. Neo-feudalism is a far more appropriate name than neoliberalism. The almost monarch like fear in which oligarchs like Mercer, Koch and Murdoch are held is certainly reminiscent of the pre-capitalist era. Even that section of the media not owned by oligarchs – such as state owned TV outlets – seems to be fearful of being overly critical of their behaviour.

By: ANGRY_MODERATE

ANGRY_MODERATE — Fri, 15 Jun 2018 22:49:00 +0000

Not so much stashed, these days, as invested in massively over-priced rare or unique artefacts. The world’s owners of capital do not wish to engage in productive capitalism: they wish to increase their wealth and power by any other means, including political corruption, ownership of the mass media, and financial manipulations, Capitalism is dying, being replaced by neo-feudalism supported by the sham theatre of democracy, concentration of ownership of the means of production, and fraudulent media “pluralism”.

By: Alasdair Macdonald

Alasdair Macdonald — Fri, 15 Jun 2018 14:03:00 +0000

The media did not ‘forget’. The media is largely owned and peopled by the groups who want there to be ‘austerity’, which isa euphemism for the transfer of wealth and power from the majority of us to a few, who stash it mainly offshore.

By: william ross

william ross — Fri, 15 Jun 2018 11:42:00 +0000

Journalism becomes churnalism.
And what a great example we have here.