How the Reserve Bank is undermining democracy

Neoliberalism's teachable moment

In all the discussions about the problems of neoliberalism, it can be difficult to nail what the issue actually is. Let me try.

Many deny that there is even such a thing as neoliberalism, that it has become a meaningless term of art used too loosely to describe anything “we” don’t like. On the other hand, the triumph of neoliberal thinking has been so complete, so total, that most of the stuff it puts into place has just become accepted as common sense, as completely normalised—especially within the self-interested political class.

You can easily see how both positions are sides of a coin, serving the interests of those who don’t want us to think about the matter too closely.

So, let’s step past such distractions.

We are currently living through a moment that perfectly illustrates the problem at the core of neoliberalism itself: that it takes control away from democratic institutions and subsumes the needs of society more generally within an ethos that delivers for an elite.

The whole id…