The liberalism process

The term "liberalism" or "neo-liberalism" can be used to describe the economic organisation that was gradually implemented in OECD countries in the late 1970s: Companies maximising shareholder profits; Labour markets deregulation, reduction in the role of trade unions ; Reduction in the tax burden; Free international movement of goods and services and capital; Strong competition in goods and services markets, rejection of dominant positions; It has to be acknowledged that at the outset, there were solid arguments in favour of these "neo-liberal" choices: Maximisation of profits by shareholders drives companies to be more efficient; moreover, it is not for companies but for the government to implement redistribution; The trade union monopoly created a sclerotic organisation of the economy, preventing the "Schumpeterian" processes of replacement of one company by another; A high tax burden and dominant companies can discourage innovation; The free international movement of capital and goods and services makes it possible to allocate global savings where it is most efficiently used and to use different countries’ comparative advantages, and to reduce inequalities between rich and poor countries . First of all , it has to be recognised that, especially in the United States, we are currently far from a situation of perfect competition given the corporate concentration and the rebuilding of dominant positions in goods and services markets. But above all, neo-liberal economic policies are currently leading to negative developments in OECD countries, which are heavily criticised: The skewing of income sharing against employees due to the decline in employees’ bargaining power, leading to an increase in inequalities and useless profits, higher than those needed to finance investment, and an abnormally high return on equity; The use of cheap fossil fuels, without governments making an effort to discourage this use, leading to the considerable increase in CO 2 emissions; Tax competition between countries, which is dragging down government revenues; The destruction of intermediate jobs, mainly manufacturing jobs, due to the relocation of mid- and low-end industries to emerging countries, leading to labour market polarisation and reduced social mobility; Excessive variability of international capital flows, leading to excessive variability of exchange rates, especially for emerging countries, and to destabilisation of economies. OECD countries must therefore now correct these disruptions created by neo-liberalism: tax incentives for productivity gains to be distributed to employees; common CO 2 price; tax coordination; protection of strategic industries and strategic industrial policy; capital controls discouraging speculative capital flows. Above all, a "non-liberal capitalism" must be defined.