Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste: How Neoliberalism Survived the Financial Meltdown Paperback – April 15, 2014

Short review:Mirowski's book is one of the best on the crisis: he mixes the eye of an anthropologist or journalist examining our daily lives and then leaps up to 20,000 feet with ease to provide a wider intellectual and historical context. His take is novel, certainly from the Left, but well informed of debates on the Right. Empirical, but with a theoretical lens as well. If you want to understand not just the economics or politics of what happened, but to situate those events within a wider history of the ideas that played in a role in the Recession, Mirowski has an incredibly erudite account.Long review:Mirowski is a member of the "Institute for New Economic Thinking", an non-profit aimed to correct the orthodoxies of economics, "neoliberal" ideas in particular. He opens this book with a report from one of the first meetings, which happened to feature "bold and original thinkers" like Ken "Excel for Dummies" Rogoff, Larry Summers and Niall Ferguson. The meeting ended with a timid call to add an extra chapter to standard Econ101 textbooks briefly describing the crisis. Mirowski further rightly groans at hand-wringing over "happiness measurements", morality in markets and peevish complaints of "greedy bankers" (as if avarice has only existed in the past ten years.)How did this rigidity come to be? Mirowski answers by suggesting that we must understand neoliberalism as a Russian doll. The innermost doll of experts emerged from the Mont Pelerlin Society, an organization that was by design very hierarchical. He describes, for instance, correspondence between Popper and Hayek. Popper, following his philosophy of open debate suggested that MPS should have at least one respectable socialist. Hayek shut down this idea, insisting that agreement on first principles was a necessary condition for membership. This tightly networked group of intellectuals slowly incubated neoliberalism and developed a political strategy for propagating it.Mirowski further points out that the Neoliberal Thought Collective were excellent sloganeers. Friedman's most famous academic text, for instance, argues that a lack of government intervention caused the Great Depression: a series of rural bank failures caused by an overly tight supply of money. However, when Friedman penned his Newsweek column he claimed with a straight face that the government *caused* the Recession, that is, by a lack of action in expanding the supply of money and reducing interest rates. This is how the Russian doll works: nuance for the insiders, ignorance for the outsiders.There is a further layer to the doll though. Pivoting off of Foucault's final lectures at the College of France, Mirowski argues that there is an everyday neoliberalism that has emerged. Beyond political theory and public policy, neoliberalism is experienced on a quotidian level and it is on that potent terrain that it has survived the crisis. I, right now, am taking time out of my day to write a book review which I will be paid nothing for, which is in the service of the Bezo empire to sell even more books and probably destroy more local bookshops and which will be used to further quantify me into some bits of data in the sky so I can be marketed to even more heavily. But but but: I am individually expressing myself! How free am I! The neoliberal self is a creature coerced into being a "free" entrepreneur. It is the poor un/underemployed soul who thinks himself to be a failure or inadequate because he was not lucky enough to ride the right wave. The old liberal arts dictum to "know thy self" becomes "express thy self, and monetize it too!" This middle chapter here is the most engrossing part of the book. Mirowski delves into a sundry of sources on our culture and then leverages a novel and erudite analysis of Foucault to bring it all into sharp focus.In closing, it is truly ironic that the other review of this book is so gravely concerned that Mirowski might be a socialist. We have a wonderful little anthropological artifact here of the NTC at work: "Whatever this book says, it's got 'Red' in a chapter title. I am a Very Reasonable Person and thus must be suspicious." Let me assure him/her: there are no calls for a violent revolution of the proletariat. On the contrary, Mirowski heads out to the outermost layer of the doll and analyzes why neoliberalism won. In particular, he argues that the NTC provided a powerful account of the market as a natural entity that *cannot* be messed with. Consequently, the Recession had nothing to do with the structure of capitalism itself, it was just a "once in a lifetime" moment akin to a natural disaster. An act of God.Mirowski's careful history here shows that just the opposite is true. There was a concerted effort to propagate a particular ignorance and the Recession itself is by no means removed from that particular effort.

This is perhaps the most significant work of economic history to emerge about neoliberalism in America since the 2008 crisis. Mirowski’s work escapes the simple causal categories which riddle so much of the fiscal crisis literature—here one finds carefully documented sociological analyses, of not only the economic presuppositions and frameworks that conditioned the neoliberal phase of financial capital, but equally of the political forms by which neoliberals operate. Mirowski argues that neoliberals are effective in managing power (and the crises their power produces) by operating as a “Thought Collective,” with interlocking think tanks, institutions, and diffuse sites of organizational initiative and coordination. In particular, social critics of neoliberalism should attend to his chapter “Everyday Neoliberalism,” which offers extraordinarily detailed, specific analyses of the micro-level conditions of neoliberalism in contemporary American life. Breaking from the Foucauldian literature (with its emphasis on biopolitics), Mirowski adopts and (esoteric/exoteric) distinction modeled on the Schmittian notion of the sovereign exception. Neoliberals, he argues, are not premised on laissez faire, but rather require a strong state to actively intervene in the formation of markets. This is a detailed and truly indispensable work for a critical understanding of the present.

This book is extremely enlightening as regards the evolution of neoliberal free market ideology.The main premise of the book is however that there is a conspiracy of sorts at work with neoliberal doctrine promulgated by and through the Mount Pelerin Society rippling outward to think tanks, universities, media outlets and government policy makers. The spreading of this ideology is assisted by deliberate misinformation designed to keep opponents off balance and absolutely baffle the unwashed masses.Mr. Mirowski's list of villains is extensive and includes not only the usual suspects such as Ayn Rand acolytes but also opponents of unbridled free markets as Paul Krugman and Joe Stieglitz. Admittedly these latter mentioned economists are indicted more for their complacency regarding the conspiracy than their opinions.Overall this is an excellent and well researched discussion of free market ideology and its ability to deflect criticism even after the 2008disaster which should have resulted in major reform to the banking system but has not.The 'but' which precludes the 5 star rating has to do with the emphasis on conspiracy rather than other factors associated with free market ascendancy.For instance,the end of the cold war and the refocusing of attention to market concerns and globalization which do not reflect consensus opinions among the population is concurrent with the growth of neoliberalism which seamlessly refocused attention from fighting communism by many means including outright warfare and the support of right wing dictatorships to world domination by the free market. Without the collective conscience of community which influenced politicians and populace through the depression and the world war and continued through the cold war we have reverted to the predepression values of the roaring twenties.There need not be a 'conspiracy' for banking institutions unhindered by regulations no longer thought relevant in the modern world and without the constraints of collective action and goals to devise what amount to useless and risky financial instruments such as CDO's, swaps and such for their own gain, as well as the rise of the 'trader' in place of the 'agent', and the substitution of 'speculation' in place of 'investment'. Simple greed explains these actions as it explained the actions of the robber barons at the turn of the 19th century.How can a country who executed the Rosenberg's for treason accept the deliberate dismantling if America's industries and the out sourcing of jobs at the expense of it's own population without complaint and without holding someone responsible? How can these actions resulting inpermanent high rates of unemployment, stagnant wages and economic disasters accumulating at more frequent intervals be of benefit to the long term interest of the United StatesThe fact that those with money act to amass more and more wealth at the expense of the general population is as American as apple pie and has only been resisted effectively following major financial disasters which changed the politics, until memories fade and we do it all overagain.This time around the money interests have successfully avoided responsibility because the safety net worked too well and the disaster wasn't extreme enough to rid congress of its influence. The robber barons of the 19th century at least provided jobs and wages. Today's barons are molding or using the governments of the world for their own gain and nothing else.The economics profession seems helpless, divided between Keynes and Hayek. Why is only one approach the 'right' approach? Why can itnot be seen that at certain circumstances one approach is better than the other? Why is there a 'fundamentalist' view of economics rather than a scientific view? Why? Because the free market disregards the general benefit of the community for an 'every man for himself', 'every man gets what he deserves' rationalization and therefore justifies greed. Without a common enemy for the community to rally around selfish individualism takes center stage.As Warren Buffet said, yes there is a class war and my class won.I highly recommend this book but hesitate to buy in to the conspiracy theory as an unnecessary complication to the actions of people serving a common interest although obviously there is some coordination of action. Perhaps you will disagree with me after reading Mr. Malinowski. Ireadily admit I may be wrong and the conspiracy is real..

Mirowski is the only author I know giving a clear account of the economic thought from the 1960s onwards. In this book he narrates the tribulations of the neoliberal ideology through the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis and how not only survived but increased its hegemony. Mirowski has a unique background as historian of science that allows him to explain the evolution of economic thought in the language that is used for all the other sciences. This book answers the question “Why neoliberalism hegemony survives 2008 crisis when its ancestor did not survive 1929 crisis?”. The quest drives him to go in depth in the way this hegemony is embedded in the social and political culture to a point that we can say that is an integral part and that even the more ferocious critics of neoliberalism cannot look at it from outside since they are also submerged in it. As I said above, indispensable for whoever is interested in epistemology of economics and specifically the epistemology of current economic thought.I have read in the comments heavy critics to the vocabulary he uses. I am not a native English and is true that in each page there is a word I have never heard before but we cannot criticize an author for using his own language properly and not with the 1000 words English that we as non-native use. With Kindle, it is as easy as to put the finger over the word couple of seconds and the definition comes on screen.

Ein hervorragendes Buch, ein wichtiges und spannendes Buch - für alle die besser verstehen wollen was eigentlich los ist. Es beleuchtet und verbindet viele wirtschaftliche, politische, ideen-geschichtliche, historische und philosophische Puzzelsteine, die wichtig zu begreifen sind, denn: "kenne deinen Feind, bevor du dich Tagträumereien über eine bessere Welt hingibst."Nebenwirkung: HorizonterweiterungGerman Translation: Untote leben länger: Warum der Neoliberalismus nach der Krise noch stärker ist

There is something quite deliberately riotous in this book. It is, of course, a serious work, recapitulating the author's previous scholarly works on neoliberalism and economics in a more digestible, polemical format. But it is also something of an arcade, an ensemble of rococo stylings, flights of sarcastic humour, polemical asides and sustained critical forays into philosophy, economics and cultural criticism. This will be too discursive, too prolix, not 'clear' enough for some people; but there's no reason why everyone has to sound like an ad copywriter in their prose.More to the point, it contains: 1) a tragicomic reading of how the economics profession squandered any chance to develop a new perspective beyond the gentrifying corsets of marginalism after the crisis, and how this intellectual conformity helped underpin the responses of national states as they bailed out the banks; 2) original and sharp analyses of the institutional and political origins of 'the Neoliberal Thought Collective' - that Russian Doll-like infrastructure of think tanks and lobbies and councils and academic journals which propagate neoliberal ideology; 3) an original engagement with Foucault's analyses of neoliberalism, in what is to me the most useful chapter, on 'everyday neoliberalism'. This chapter explains in ways that other authors do not the ways in which neoliberalism filters into everyday life, structuring people's experiences of the world, penetrating culture, and thus making itself more accepted; 4) a lucid analysis of the credit crunch and the responses to it.I have read many useful accounts of the crisis - the credit crunch and ensuing recessions and debt panics. Albo, Gindin & Panitch have written well, in their book In and Out of Crisis, about why it is that the banks got their way. Mark Blyth has dissected austerity politics well. And Froud et al, in their book After The Great Complacence, have provided a subtle analysis of the 'elite debacle' that led to the credit crunch. But this one opened my eyes more than the others, and for that reason I consider it the best on the crisis to date.

これは面白い。もしかしたら僕が長年求めていたのはmirowskiの作品だったのかもしれません。彼は経済学の歴史家なのです。skidelskiもケインズの伝記を書く際に相当な現代の経済学の知識を身につけたはずですが、おそらくmirowskiにはかなわないでしょう。彼は現代の経済学をその本質とその技術において把握しているのです。その該博な知識の上に、壮大な新自由主義批判をくりひろげているのです。本書の発端は、シンプルな疑問に発しているはずです。2008年の金融危機によりその基盤を崩されたはずの新自由主義や新古典派経済学がこの世界から消え去ることなく相変わらずその強固なstaying powerを示しているのです。この疑問に答えるためにこの作品は書かれたのです。そこで示されるのは新自由主義の恐るべき粘着力です。double think（本音と建て前）の構造をもつ新自由主義は、どのような挑戦に対してもfull spectrumの回答を用意しているのです。短期的には詭弁による問題の否定とぼかしそして混乱、中期的には決してワークすることのない市場メカニズムを使った解決策の呈示、そして最終的にはユートピアともいうべき代案の提示、結果として何もしないことによる問題の放棄。それぞれのアプローチの背後には驚くべき制度的な蓄積と知的な資源が存在するのです。そして新自由主義が常によりどころとするagnostrogyとignorance（不可知学？）を基盤とする知識の構造。危機に直面すると市場でなく一部の人間によるシュミット流の例外状況での決定によるゲームのルールの転換。そして複雑で広範囲にわたる利害の相克の状況。新古典派の経済学はその表面上の「多様性」にもかかわらずすべてこの構造の中に組み込まれているのです。だからこそ強固なのです。著者の分析は精緻ですが、その精緻さは現代経済学への造詣が深ければ深いほど味わうことができます。それ以上に魅惑的なのが著者のポレミカルともいうべき英文です。そこで使われる英語はあまりにも刺激的で英語を母国語としないものや経済学の知識がないものにはついていくのがやっとです。最後の著者の結論には重いものがあります。過去へのノスタルジアにはもはや存在する余地はありません。敵の強さを十分に認識したうえでの相手を見習った政治的な対応が必須なのです。ただ彼の著作はどれも値段が高いな。

Read it Summer 2015, only posting review here because I'm a bit taken aback by the low score. About as thorough a look at the underlying ethos construct operations and manifestations of neoliberalism as you are likely to find and one which addresses the most pertinent question post the 2008 financial crash, namely "where are the riots?" How is it Blair gets replaced by Cameron, Bush by Obama, how is it things change yet they don't. This book will go some way to explaining why neoliberalism is so persistently virulent, though some have called time on neoliberalism as a thing post Brexit/Trump, the issue with those two though is they are fundamentally chaotic and destructive, neoliberalism has been a very impressive project in terms of goals and outcomes, whatever its dubious underlying beliefs and morals, this is very much the book to read if you want to get your head around it, though bear in mind it can be a bit of a slog at times, especially when the territory verges into the familiarities of the 2008 crash and aftermath. Anyway, well worth it, if that's your thing.