Argentina's economic activity is likely to have plunged for a fourth consecutive month in February, according to a Reuters poll. Analysts predict a year-on-year decline of 5.9%, reflecting the impact of austerity measures implemented by president Javier Milei.

Argentina's economic activity likely plunged in February

As promised, Argentina's new president, Javier Milei, delivered the first set of his "shock therapy" plans for the economy. in a televised address, Milei listed 30 initial points in sweeping reforms to rescue the nation from a severe economic crisis. Milei said these were only the first steps and part of a broader package of over 300 measures.

Argentina faces protests as President implements Austerity measures

In a<a href="https://www.wionews.com/south-asia/in-a-bid-to-cut-costs-imran-khan-expresses-wish-to-stay-at-ambassadors-home-during-us-visit-233951"> bid to cut costs with the struggling economy</a> of&nbsp;his country, Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan has decided to take Qatar Airways flight to the US.

The prime minister had so far used PAK1 for his foreign visits. PAK1 is the official airplane used by Pakistan prime ministers.

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PM Imran Khan will fly to Washington by Qatar Airways.
— Naeem ul Haque (@naeemul_haque) <a href="https://twitter.com/naeemul_haque/status/1151856958737133576?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 18, 2019</a></blockquote>
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Imran's foreign visits so far included two times China trip, three times visit to Saudi Arabia, a once trip to Russia, Qatar and UAE.

Khan used PAK1 for his visits to all these countries.

The PM has also decided to&nbsp;stay at Pakistan House on his visit to the US Capitol.

Pakistan House is the Ambassador's residence in Washington DC.

Imran Khan will visit the US from July 21-24 where he will meet with the Pakistan diaspora.

The Pakistan Prime Minister will meet US President Donald Trump on July 22.

In a bid to cut costs with the struggling economy of his country, Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan has decided to take Qatar Airways flight to the US. The prime minister had so far used PAK1 for his foreign visits.

In a bid to cut costs with the struggling economy of his country, Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan has decided to take Qatar Airways flight to the US. The prime minister had so far used PAK1 for his foreign visits. PAK1 is the official airplane used by Pakistan prime ministers. PM Imran Khan will fly to Washington by Qatar Airways. — Naeem ul Haque (@naeemul_haque) July 18, 2019 × Imran's foreign visits so far included two times China trip, three times visit to Saudi Arabia, a once trip to Russia, Qatar and UAE. Khan used PAK1 for his visits to all these countries. The PM has also decided to stay at Pakistan House on his visit to the US Capitol. Pakistan House is the Ambassador's residence in Washington DC. Imran Khan will visit the US from July 21-24 where he will meet with the Pakistan diaspora. The Pakistan Prime Minister will meet US President Donald Trump on July 22.

Imran Khan's 'cost-cutting' drive; to take Qatar Airways flight to US

Germany "takes total responsibility for crimes committed" by the Nazis in Greece, Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Friday on a visit to Athens.

Tensions linger over wartime reparations for the Nazis' World War II occupation of Greece with Berlin arguing the issue was settled in 1960 in a deal with several European governments.&nbsp;

German Chancellor Angela Merkel arrived in Greece amid tight security on Thursday, as she looks to turn the page on the biting austerity measures that sparked major protests during her last official visit to Athens in 2014.

Nearly 2,000 police personnel were deployed to supervise Merkel's visit and authorities have banned demonstrations around the home of Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, where the two leaders are set to meet.

Relations between Greece and Germany have calmed since her previous visits in 2012 and 2014, which were overshadowed by angry anti-austerity rallies.&nbsp;

But small protests by leftist parties and neo-Nazi groups were expected outside the no-go zone, while a police source said the authorities had opened an inquiry into five envelopes containing "a powder of unknown origin", which were sent to regional universities this week.

Merkel's visit is seen as a chance to leave behind a fraught period caused by tough German demands for Greek austerity accompanying EU bailouts for the country during the eurozone sovereign debt crisis.

Greece, which left eight years of bailout programmes behind last year, has also been deeply affected by the European migrant crisis in recent years. &nbsp;&nbsp;

Ahead of the trip, Merkel's spokeswoman Martina Fietz said she and far-left leader Tsipras would discuss "European and international" issues.

Germany "takes total responsibility for crimes committed" by the Nazis in Greece, Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Friday on a visit to Athens. Tensions linger over wartime reparations for the Nazis' World War II occupation of Greece with Berlin arguing the issue was settled in 1960 in a deal with several European governments.

Germany "takes total responsibility for crimes committed" by the Nazis in Greece, Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Friday on a visit to Athens. Tensions linger over wartime reparations for the Nazis' World War II occupation of Greece with Berlin arguing the issue was settled in 1960 in a deal with several European governments. German Chancellor Angela Merkel arrived in Greece amid tight security on Thursday, as she looks to turn the page on the biting austerity measures that sparked major protests during her last official visit to Athens in 2014. Nearly 2,000 police personnel were deployed to supervise Merkel's visit and authorities have banned demonstrations around the home of Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, where the two leaders are set to meet. Relations between Greece and Germany have calmed since her previous visits in 2012 and 2014, which were overshadowed by angry anti-austerity rallies. But small protests by leftist parties and neo-Nazi groups were expected outside the no-go zone, while a police source said the authorities had opened an inquiry into five envelopes containing "a powder of unknown origin", which were sent to regional universities this week. Merkel's visit is seen as a chance to leave behind a fraught period caused by tough German demands for Greek austerity accompanying EU bailouts for the country during the eurozone sovereign debt crisis. Greece, which left eight years of bailout programmes behind last year, has also been deeply affected by the European migrant crisis in recent years. Ahead of the trip, Merkel's spokeswoman Martina Fietz said she and far-left leader Tsipras would discuss "European and international" issues.

Merkel says Germany takes responsibility for Nazi crimes in Greece

The lower house of Argentina's Congress approved Thursday an unpopular austerity budget designed to meet the requirements of a $57 billion IMF bailout.

The vote came in the early morning after 14 hours of debate and a day of unrest that saw police fire tear gas at people throwing rocks outside the legislature building to protest the 2019 blueprint's bitter cocktail of tax increases and spending cuts.

The vote tally was 138 in favour to 103 against, with eight abstentions. The draft now goes to the Senate for approval.

Unions and the leftist opposition have criticized center-right President Mauricio Macri's economic program of sweeping spending cuts to meet the deficit-reduction requirements of the IMF loan.

The bailout is supposed to help Argentina recover from an economic crisis in which the peso has lost half its value this year, inflation is forecast to finish the year at 40 per cent and the economy is expected to shrink by 2.6 per cent.

"We are in a crisis and the government must take responsibility. Social problems and the recession oblige us to pass the law," ruling Cambiemos party lawmaker Mario Negri said in a speech after the budget passed.

"To have no budget would be a defeat for the country," he added.

Macri has pledged cuts of $10 billion in health, education, science, transportation, public works and culture.

"No to the IMF budget. Don't cut our future!" shouted demonstrators outside while, inside the chamber, feelings ran high as lawmakers jostled and traded insults ahead of the vote.&nbsp;

Street protests have reflected growing public anger after Macri slashed civil service jobs as part of a bid to cut Argentina's fiscal deficit and tame inflation at the IMF's behest.

The budget deficit was 3.9 per cent of GDP last year. The government aims to get it down to 2.7 per cent in 2018 and zero by the end of next year.

The lower house of Argentina's Congress approved Thursday an unpopular austerity budget designed to meet the requirements of a $57 billion IMF bailout. The vote came in the early morning after 14 hours of debate and a day of unrest that saw police fire tear gas at people throwing rocks outside the legislature building to protest the 2019 blueprint's bitter cocktail of tax increases and spending cuts.

The lower house of Argentina's Congress approved Thursday an unpopular austerity budget designed to meet the requirements of a $57 billion IMF bailout. The vote came in the early morning after 14 hours of debate and a day of unrest that saw police fire tear gas at people throwing rocks outside the legislature building to protest the 2019 blueprint's bitter cocktail of tax increases and spending cuts. The vote tally was 138 in favour to 103 against, with eight abstentions. The draft now goes to the Senate for approval. Unions and the leftist opposition have criticized center-right President Mauricio Macri's economic program of sweeping spending cuts to meet the deficit-reduction requirements of the IMF loan. The bailout is supposed to help Argentina recover from an economic crisis in which the peso has lost half its value this year, inflation is forecast to finish the year at 40 per cent and the economy is expected to shrink by 2.6 per cent. "We are in a crisis and the government must take responsibility. Social problems and the recession oblige us to pass the law," ruling Cambiemos party lawmaker Mario Negri said in a speech after the budget passed. "To have no budget would be a defeat for the country," he added. Macri has pledged cuts of $10 billion in health, education, science, transportation, public works and culture. "No to the IMF budget. Don't cut our future!" shouted demonstrators outside while, inside the chamber, feelings ran high as lawmakers jostled and traded insults ahead of the vote. Street protests have reflected growing public anger after Macri slashed civil service jobs as part of a bid to cut Argentina's fiscal deficit and tame inflation at the IMF's behest. The budget deficit was 3.9 per cent of GDP last year. The government aims to get it down to 2.7 per cent in 2018 and zero by the end of next year.

Argentine lawmakers approve austerity budget

The Pakistani premier's house milked its livestock reserves Thursday as dozens gathered for a buffalo auction in the capital Islamabad, in the latest push for Prime Minister Imran Khan's highly publicised austerity drive.

A total of eight buffalos were auctioned off for nearly 2.3 million rupees ($19,000) at the prime minister's residence, as Khan's new administration aims to cut expenditure and increase revenue collection to boost Pakistan's struggling economy.

"The auction was not just good. It was very, very good," said government official Javaid Iqbal, who oversaw the sale.

An auctioneer shouted prices to a crowd carrying stacks of rupees in the residence's backyard, where the shiny, black buffalos for sale were tied to nearby trees.

The animals were purchased in 2014 by the government of ousted premier Nawaz Sharif, with supporters of the erstwhile leader flocking to the auction and paying several times the market price for a piece of history.

"I bought a buffalo for 300,000 rupees, which is three times higher than the market price. But I am happy because it's a memory tied to my leader Nawaz Sharif," Malik Tayyib Nawaz told AFP.

Sharif -- who was removed from office last year by the Supreme Court for alleged corruption -- was freed from prison earlier this month after being jailed weeks ahead of July elections.

However, others at the auction complained of the high prices.

"A common man like me cannot afford to buy them," said Zameer Khan, who travelled to the event with the hope of netting a buffalo but left empty handed.

Khan was elected in July on promises to cut excessive government spending and build an Islamic welfare state in the impoverished South Asian nation.

As part of the ongoing austerity drive, Pakistan has auctioned off dozens of luxury vehicles belonging to the prime minister's house and also launched a crowdfunding campaign to build a dam in the country's north.

The Pakistani premier's house milked its livestock reserves Thursday as dozens gathered for a buffalo auction in the capital Islamabad, in the latest push for Prime Minister Imran Khan's highly publicised austerity drive.

The Pakistani premier's house milked its livestock reserves Thursday as dozens gathered for a buffalo auction in the capital Islamabad, in the latest push for Prime Minister Imran Khan's highly publicised austerity drive. A total of eight buffalos were auctioned off for nearly 2.3 million rupees ($19,000) at the prime minister's residence, as Khan's new administration aims to cut expenditure and increase revenue collection to boost Pakistan's struggling economy. "The auction was not just good. It was very, very good," said government official Javaid Iqbal, who oversaw the sale. An auctioneer shouted prices to a crowd carrying stacks of rupees in the residence's backyard, where the shiny, black buffalos for sale were tied to nearby trees. The animals were purchased in 2014 by the government of ousted premier Nawaz Sharif, with supporters of the erstwhile leader flocking to the auction and paying several times the market price for a piece of history. "I bought a buffalo for 300,000 rupees, which is three times higher than the market price. But I am happy because it's a memory tied to my leader Nawaz Sharif," Malik Tayyib Nawaz told AFP. Sharif -- who was removed from office last year by the Supreme Court for alleged corruption -- was freed from prison earlier this month after being jailed weeks ahead of July elections. However, others at the auction complained of the high prices. "A common man like me cannot afford to buy them," said Zameer Khan, who travelled to the event with the hope of netting a buffalo but left empty handed. Khan was elected in July on promises to cut excessive government spending and build an Islamic welfare state in the impoverished South Asian nation. As part of the ongoing austerity drive, Pakistan has auctioned off dozens of luxury vehicles belonging to the prime minister's house and also launched a crowdfunding campaign to build a dam in the country's north.

Cash cows: Pakistan PM's house auctions buffalos for austerity

By&nbsp;<a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/cesar-renduels-menendez-de-llano-365327">C&eacute;sar Renduels Menendez de Llano</a>&nbsp;and <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/donatella-della-porta-366380">Donatella Della Porta</a>

&nbsp;

In 1980, the novelist Martin Amis attended a meeting in Texas with Ronald Reagan, then in the midst of the campaign that would put him in the White House. Reagan liked to end his electoral activities with some audience Q+A. The more personal the question, <a href="https://archive.org/stream/HeliganSecretsOfTheLostGardens/AmisMartin-TheMoronicInfernoAndOtherVisitsToAmerica_djvu.txt">Amis explained</a>, the more Reagan enjoyed answering.

Question: &ldquo;Of all the people in America, sir, why you for President?&rdquo;

Reagan grins.

Answer: &ldquo;Well, I&rsquo;m not smart enough to tell a lie.&rdquo;

Laughter, applause.

Amis relays the exchange:

<blockquote>
&lsquo;But why do you want it, sir?&rsquo; Reagan flexes his worn, snipped, tucked, mottled face. &lsquo;This country needs a good Republican and I feel I can do the job. Why? I&rsquo;m happy. I&rsquo;m feeling good.&rsquo; Here he turns. &lsquo;And I have Nancy to tuck me up at night.&rsquo;
</blockquote>

Laughter, applause, hats in the air.

Anger, discontent and resentment

Imagine this anecdote today. Were Donald Trump had asked the same question in 2016, it seems like he may have responded: &ldquo;Because I&rsquo;m unhappy. I&rsquo;m feeling bad. And my relationship with my wife is catastrophic.&rdquo;

And surely his Republican audience would also have clapped, identifying now not with Reagan&rsquo;s optimism but with Trump&rsquo;s self-portrait of anger, discontent and resentment.

Ronald Reagan, that carefree actor-president, may have been the last US leader to channel Americans&rsquo; good feelings about the free market. As Robert Putnam outlines in his famous <a href="http://bowlingalone.com">investigation</a>, Bowling Alone, civil society and social bonds in the US strengthened from the early 20th century until the 1970s, when the era of neoliberal reforms began.

At that point, things quickly began to unravel. Historically speaking, the growth of mercantilism, en economic nationalism that seeks to enrich the state through trade and wealth accumulation, has always deteriorated social bonds, though that&rsquo;s not necessarily a bad thing. The market also <a href="http://www.rochelleterman.com/ComparativeExam/sites/default/files/Bibliography%20and%20Summaries/Comparative%20Politics_0.pdf">weakens relationships that are clientelistic</a>, toxic or patriarchal.

Problems arise when mercantilism becomes an expansive, generalised social dynamic, which is precisely what globalisation unleashed starting in the 1970s. After global economic crisis exposed the limits of the Fordist assembly line-style mass production model, the world veered sharply back toward the liberal, unregulated <a href="http://www.manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/series/manchester-capitalism/">Manchester capitalism</a> that had predominated before the second world war.

The rest of the story, which is the subject of our new book <a href="http://www.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-1509522352,subjectCd-SO20.html">The Great Regression</a>, you know well.

&lsquo;A catastrophic level of social corrosion&rsquo;

We often make the mistake of thinking that globalisation is a radical new phenomenon, both postmodern and futuristic.

In fact, in his 1944 book <a href="http://inctpped.ie.ufrj.br/spiderweb/pdf_4/Great_Transformation.pdf">The Great Transformation</a>, historian Karl Polanyi was already explaining the political and social crises of the inter-war period as a reaction to the failures of the free market.

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<a class="source" href="https://www.amazon.com/Great-Regression-Heinrich-Geiselberger/dp/1509522360">Amazon</a>

&nbsp;
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</figure>

From his perspective, the whole utopian idea of a self-regulating market was nihilistic and self-destructive, materially incompatible with the variety of human social life of humans.

For the pragmatist Polanyi, the &ldquo;free market&rdquo; never existed and could never exist. To begin with, mercantilism as a financial system has always required aggressive state intervention, both to ease the pains of its flaws and to break people&rsquo;s natural resistance to being dragged along by the coattails of their economy.

Practically every government in the world has undertaken this process since the 1980s. In <a href="https://www.uow.edu.au/%7Esharonb/jape.html">privatising public services</a>, for example, they have created enormous business opportunities for local elites (<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/1992/09/06/business/the-big-push-toward-privatization-in-argentina.html?pagewanted1">Argentina</a> being a prime example), stimulated rampant real estate speculation (just look at <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2017/feb/06/made-london-property-speculation-industry-capital">the UK</a>) and used public resources to rescue the banking system from its own mistakes (remember <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/spain-banks-timeline-idUSL5E8H88YV20120608">Spain</a>?).

When mercantilistm reaches the catastrophic point at which it begins to corrupt all society, Polanyi says, then collective counter-movements emerge. These efforts to reestablish communal living can have radically different political orientations.

The 20th century had the fascists, waging what Italian Marxist Antonio Gramsci dubbed &ldquo;<a href="https://quadernidelcarcere.wordpress.com/tag/teoria-della-rivoluzione-passiva/">passive revolutions</a>&rdquo; that aspired to alter the economic and social machinery to preserve elite privileges. It also saw Roosevelt&rsquo;s New Deal, Europe&rsquo;s 1940s democratic socialist movements and <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/attlee_clement.shtml">Clement Attlee&rsquo;s reformist Labour government</a> in the UK (1945-1951).

All these were anti-mercantlist projects inspired by democratisation, learning and egalitarianism.

Anti-neoliberal counter reactions

This history is a reminder that there is an old pattern to these shaky modern times.

In the 21st century, counter reactions to globalisation have also been taking radically different forms. Early in the century, <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13260219.2013.853353">Latin America&rsquo;s leftist governments</a> challenged the neoliberal order, rejecting the Washington Consensus and building regional solidarity.

Then, there were the <a href="https://theconversation.com/five-years-on-the-spirit-of-tahrir-square-has-been-all-but-crushed-53461">Arab Spring</a> uprisings of 2010 to 2013, which sought to deepen democracy in a region long dominated by dictators.

The former was crushed and the latter has <a href="https://theconversation.com/can-a-chilean-outsider-revive-latin-americas-ailing-left-71213">largely waned</a>. But the innovative ideas developed in the <a href="http://www.academia.edu/1644759/Understanding_European_movements_new_social_movements_global_justice_struggles_anti-austerity_protest">anti-austerity protests</a> of Iceland Greece, Spain and Portugal following the start of the European debt crisis in 2009 are still very much alive.

What has everyone talking are developments on the opposite end of the ideological spectrum: Brexit, Trump, the extreme right, Islamic fundamentalism &ndash; <a href="https://theconversation.com/from-brexit-to-colombias-no-vote-are-constitutional-democracies-in-crisis-66668">neoliberal backlashes</a> offering new solutions for global elites hoping to preserve their privileges in a turbulent international economy.

It is early yet for an in-depth analysis of the current regressive phenomenon. But we can at least start asking the right questions.

First, did economic discontent really fuel the rise of the modern right, as many claim? <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2016/jun/24/the-areas-and-demographics-where-the-brexit-vote-was-won">Data from the UK</a> and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/nov/09/white-voters-victory-donald-trump-exit-polls">the US</a> indicate exactly the opposite. Not only &ndash; not even mainly &ndash; blue collar workers supported Brexit and Donald Trump; <a href="https://theconversation.com/who-are-trump-voters-social-sciencing-the-s-t-out-of-yard-signs-66099">the rich and the educated did</a> too.

But it is misleading to blame the resentment of the declining middle class for the state of Western politics today.

Money played a crucial role in right-wing victories in the US. Big business and <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/29/opinion/29rich.html">well-funded think tanks</a>, including the <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/brendan-demelle/study-confirms-tea-party-_b_2663125.html">tobacco lobby and the billionaire Koch brothers</a>, have funded the US Tea Party for years, and starting in 2015, they richly backed Trump.

To mobilise the traditional conservative base of the Republican Party, <a href="https://theconversation.com/are-trump-and-sanders-rewriting-the-rules-on-money-in-politics-56891">cash was injected</a> into media blitzes that spread simple messages, often lies, appealing to American fear.

Money is not the whole story, but it is an important part of it and it has historic resonance. During Europe&rsquo;s fascist and Nazi movements, regressive counter movements feigned solidarity with the 99% while clearly enjoying the support of the 1%. The market&rsquo;s positive response to Trump&rsquo;s victory may be a <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-we-can-learn-from-markets-reaction-to-a-president-trump-68116">clear indication that this is happening again</a>.

So far, the new regressive movements are adopting very different forms to their left-wing recent predecessors in Latin America and Europe. They diverge not only ideologically &ndash; with cosmopolitanism on the one side and xenophobia on the other &ndash; but also in their organisational models.

On the right, politics today is characterised by <a href="https://theconversation.com/trumps-inauguration-ushers-in-2017-the-year-of-the-strongman-70846">strong, personalised leadership</a>: Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Narendra Modi, Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump being prime examples.

Recent progressive anti-neoliberal movements, on the other hand, have been mostly been <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-hate-neoliberalism-but-love-each-other-a-latin-american-grassroots-guide-68899">defined by citizen participation</a>.

There&rsquo;s no evidence (yet) that regressive movements are necessarily more successful than their progressive counterparts. Rather, in times of economic crisis, left-wing advances such as workers&rsquo; rights have been met with a powerful, well-funded resistance.

The near-constant protest of Trump, Erdogan or Orban confirm progressive counter-reactions <a href="https://theconversation.com/trump-victory-comes-with-a-silver-lining-for-the-worlds-progressives-68523">are very much alive</a> indeed. But they seem unlikely to put regressive movements out of business any time soon.

<figure><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/rmdiUoL-ZMk?wmode=transparent&amp;start=0" width="440"></iframe></figure>

&nbsp;

One step forward, two steps back

The mainstream progressive response to this reactionary challenge has been, primarily, nostalgia for Keynesian economics: increase public spending to stimulate the economy, boost demand and create employment, redistribute wealth to grow the economy, among other things.

That&rsquo;s a bad alternative. Keynes is dead and he&rsquo;s not coming back. Everything about his era &ndash; from the post-second world war international relations system of Bretton Woods and the Soviet threat to the fast clip of <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/bookreviews/6251312/Keynes-the-Return-of-the-Master-by-Robert-Skidelsky-review.html">economic expansion</a> back then &ndash; is unthinkable today.

Only in a few places has the popular response to the failure of the self-regulating free-market been to push for greater freedom and deeper democracy, rather than to retrench or reminisce.

In addition to a timid normalisation of such activism around basic rights such as housing, a universal basic income, cooperativism and feminism, we have <a href="https://theconversation.com/austerity-portugal-is-on-a-different-path-to-greece-and-spain-heres-why-48121">Portugal&rsquo;s left-wing ruling coalition</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/meet-podemos-the-party-revolutionising-spanish-politics-33802">Podemos</a> in Spain and the <a href="https://theconversation.com/syriza-sweeps-to-victory-in-greek-election-promising-an-end-to-humiliation-36680">Syriza government in Greece</a>.

Today, it is evident that Greece is not the European Union&rsquo;s burden to bear but rather part of its salvation. Syriza has proposed an alternative to European financial metastasis by <a href="http://fortune.com/2016/06/03/greece-eurozone/">reclaiming fiscal sovereignty</a>, battening down the markets, focusing on democratisation, and seeking continent-wide social solidarity.

It&rsquo;s noteworthy that virtually <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-hate-neoliberalism-but-love-each-other-a-latin-american-grassroots-guide-68899">all rights-based anti-neoliberalism</a> has come from peripheral or semi-peripheral nations: first Latin America a decade ago, and now southern Europe. All of them have faced fierce opposition from the rich West.

It may be time to start <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-hate-neoliberalism-but-love-each-other-a-latin-american-grassroots-guide-68899">thinking about the Global South not as a problem but as a solution</a> to the great regression.

*Llano is with the&nbsp;<a href="http://theconversation.com/institutions/universidad-complutense-de-madrid-2383">Universidad Complutense de Madrid</a>

**&nbsp;<a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/donatella-della-porta-366380">Porta</a>&nbsp;is with the&nbsp;<a href="http://theconversation.com/institutions/institute-of-human-and-social-sciences-scuola-normale-superiore-florence-3060">Institute of Human and Social sciences, Scuola Normale Superiore, Florence</a>

The Great Regression, available in 13 languages, can be <a href="http://www.thegreatregression.eu/">found online</a>.

&nbsp;

This article was originally published on <a href="http://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a>. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-road-to-the-great-regression-76293">original article</a>.

On the right, politics today is characterised by strong, personalised leadership: Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Narendra Modi, Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump being prime examples.

By César Renduels Menendez de Llano and Donatella Della Porta In 1980, the novelist Martin Amis attended a meeting in Texas with Ronald Reagan, then in the midst of the campaign that would put him in the White House. Reagan liked to end his electoral activities with some audience Q+A. The more personal the question, Amis explained, the more Reagan enjoyed answering. Question: “Of all the people in America, sir, why you for President?” Reagan grins. Answer: “Well, I’m not smart enough to tell a lie.” Laughter, applause. Amis relays the exchange: ‘But why do you want it, sir?’ Reagan flexes his worn, snipped, tucked, mottled face. ‘This country needs a good Republican and I feel I can do the job. Why? I’m happy. I’m feeling good.’ Here he turns. ‘And I have Nancy to tuck me up at night.’ Laughter, applause, hats in the air. Anger, discontent and resentment Imagine this anecdote today. Were Donald Trump had asked the same question in 2016, it seems like he may have responded: “Because I’m unhappy. I’m feeling bad. And my relationship with my wife is catastrophic.” And surely his Republican audience would also have clapped, identifying now not with Reagan’s optimism but with Trump’s self-portrait of anger, discontent and resentment. Ronald Reagan, that carefree actor-president, may have been the last US leader to channel Americans’ good feelings about the free market. As Robert Putnam outlines in his famous investigation, Bowling Alone, civil society and social bonds in the US strengthened from the early 20th century until the 1970s, when the era of neoliberal reforms began. At that point, things quickly began to unravel. Historically speaking, the growth of mercantilism, en economic nationalism that seeks to enrich the state through trade and wealth accumulation, has always deteriorated social bonds, though that’s not necessarily a bad thing. The market also weakens relationships that are clientelistic, toxic or patriarchal. Problems arise when mercantilism becomes an expansive, generalised social dynamic, which is precisely what globalisation unleashed starting in the 1970s. After global economic crisis exposed the limits of the Fordist assembly line-style mass production model, the world veered sharply back toward the liberal, unregulated Manchester capitalism that had predominated before the second world war. The rest of the story, which is the subject of our new book The Great Regression, you know well. ‘A catastrophic level of social corrosion’ We often make the mistake of thinking that globalisation is a radical new phenomenon, both postmodern and futuristic. In fact, in his 1944 book The Great Transformation, historian Karl Polanyi was already explaining the political and social crises of the inter-war period as a reaction to the failures of the free market. Amazon From his perspective, the whole utopian idea of a self-regulating market was nihilistic and self-destructive, materially incompatible with the variety of human social life of humans. For the pragmatist Polanyi, the “free market” never existed and could never exist. To begin with, mercantilism as a financial system has always required aggressive state intervention, both to ease the pains of its flaws and to break people’s natural resistance to being dragged along by the coattails of their economy. Practically every government in the world has undertaken this process since the 1980s. In privatising public services, for example, they have created enormous business opportunities for local elites (Argentina being a prime example), stimulated rampant real estate speculation (just look at the UK) and used public resources to rescue the banking system from its own mistakes (remember Spain?). When mercantilistm reaches the catastrophic point at which it begins to corrupt all society, Polanyi says, then collective counter-movements emerge. These efforts to reestablish communal living can have radically different political orientations. The 20th century had the fascists, waging what Italian Marxist Antonio Gramsci dubbed “passive revolutions” that aspired to alter the economic and social machinery to preserve elite privileges. It also saw Roosevelt’s New Deal, Europe’s 1940s democratic socialist movements and Clement Attlee’s reformist Labour government in the UK (1945-1951). All these were anti-mercantlist projects inspired by democratisation, learning and egalitarianism. Anti-neoliberal counter reactions This history is a reminder that there is an old pattern to these shaky modern times. In the 21st century, counter reactions to globalisation have also been taking radically different forms. Early in the century, Latin America’s leftist governments challenged the neoliberal order, rejecting the Washington Consensus and building regional solidarity. Then, there were the Arab Spring uprisings of 2010 to 2013, which sought to deepen democracy in a region long dominated by dictators. The former was crushed and the latter has largely waned. But the innovative ideas developed in the anti-austerity protests of Iceland Greece, Spain and Portugal following the start of the European debt crisis in 2009 are still very much alive. What has everyone talking are developments on the opposite end of the ideological spectrum: Brexit, Trump, the extreme right, Islamic fundamentalism – neoliberal backlashes offering new solutions for global elites hoping to preserve their privileges in a turbulent international economy. It is early yet for an in-depth analysis of the current regressive phenomenon. But we can at least start asking the right questions. First, did economic discontent really fuel the rise of the modern right, as many claim? Data from the UK and the US indicate exactly the opposite. Not only – not even mainly – blue collar workers supported Brexit and Donald Trump; the rich and the educated did too. But it is misleading to blame the resentment of the declining middle class for the state of Western politics today. Money played a crucial role in right-wing victories in the US. Big business and well-funded think tanks, including the tobacco lobby and the billionaire Koch brothers, have funded the US Tea Party for years, and starting in 2015, they richly backed Trump. To mobilise the traditional conservative base of the Republican Party, cash was injected into media blitzes that spread simple messages, often lies, appealing to American fear. Money is not the whole story, but it is an important part of it and it has historic resonance. During Europe’s fascist and Nazi movements, regressive counter movements feigned solidarity with the 99% while clearly enjoying the support of the 1%. The market’s positive response to Trump’s victory may be a clear indication that this is happening again. So far, the new regressive movements are adopting very different forms to their left-wing recent predecessors in Latin America and Europe. They diverge not only ideologically – with cosmopolitanism on the one side and xenophobia on the other – but also in their organisational models. On the right, politics today is characterised by strong, personalised leadership: Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Narendra Modi, Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump being prime examples. Recent progressive anti-neoliberal movements, on the other hand, have been mostly been defined by citizen participation. There’s no evidence (yet) that regressive movements are necessarily more successful than their progressive counterparts. Rather, in times of economic crisis, left-wing advances such as workers’ rights have been met with a powerful, well-funded resistance. The near-constant protest of Trump, Erdogan or Orban confirm progressive counter-reactions are very much alive indeed. But they seem unlikely to put regressive movements out of business any time soon. One step forward, two steps back The mainstream progressive response to this reactionary challenge has been, primarily, nostalgia for Keynesian economics: increase public spending to stimulate the economy, boost demand and create employment, redistribute wealth to grow the economy, among other things. That’s a bad alternative. Keynes is dead and he’s not coming back. Everything about his era – from the post-second world war international relations system of Bretton Woods and the Soviet threat to the fast clip of economic expansion back then – is unthinkable today. Only in a few places has the popular response to the failure of the self-regulating free-market been to push for greater freedom and deeper democracy, rather than to retrench or reminisce. In addition to a timid normalisation of such activism around basic rights such as housing, a universal basic income, cooperativism and feminism, we have Portugal’s left-wing ruling coalition, Podemos in Spain and the Syriza government in Greece. Today, it is evident that Greece is not the European Union’s burden to bear but rather part of its salvation. Syriza has proposed an alternative to European financial metastasis by reclaiming fiscal sovereignty, battening down the markets, focusing on democratisation, and seeking continent-wide social solidarity. It’s noteworthy that virtually all rights-based anti-neoliberalism has come from peripheral or semi-peripheral nations: first Latin America a decade ago, and now southern Europe. All of them have faced fierce opposition from the rich West. It may be time to start thinking about the Global South not as a problem but as a solution to the great regression. *Llano is with the Universidad Complutense de Madrid ** Porta is with the Institute of Human and Social sciences, Scuola Normale Superiore, Florence The Great Regression, available in 13 languages, can be found online. This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

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