The global economy came down with a bad case of stagflation (weak growth and rapidly rising prices) in the 1970s. Neoliberalism was touted as the medicine that would cure the sickness, delivering growth and stability through market deregulation, lower taxes for the rich and cuts to public spending. Yes, overall inequality would increase. But the wealth generated by the richest would ultimately trickle down, making everyone better off.
“That was the promise: a smaller slice of the pie, but as the pie is so much bigger you’ll actually have more of it,” says the economist and bestselling author Prof Ha-Joon Chang. But things haven’t quite panned out like that.
