Crime Against Humanity: Pensée Unique in Economics, 29

So we have a two−stage yardstick here:
First, we can observe how reality belied neoclassical economics and its supporters in terms of the overall result: contrary to their claims, countries abiding by what they demand did not better than those that do not; on the contrary, they did quite worse. And to this it must be added that for one fifth of that time period Japan underwent a severe recession. Does the fog begin to lift?
Second, we can observe as well how reality nailed neoclassical economics and its supporters as to inequality, too: in addition to delivering less instead of the more claimed, that less is also more unequally shared. And to this is must be added the fallout on people’s lives of this less, amplified by this greater inequality, in terms not measured by the above figures but which still do constitute the quality of life, such as unemployment rate, injury rate, crime rate, suicide rate, etc. Does the fog continue to lift?

But then Werner moves on from static to dynamic: the above outlines the outcome during that time period as an overall static picture, so now let’s put it in motion to observe more closely the relationship between a change in the degree of neoclassical “cure” and a change in the Japan’s health.
This dynamic testbed as well is half a century long because Japan underwent a constant neoclassical pressure since the 1960s and started to change significantly from the 1970s onwards, resulting in a progressive but radical shift in that direction, which makes an ideal testbed for neoclassical structural reforms to prove themselves.

To gauge the increasing degree of neoclassical reshaping of Japanese economy Werner mentions various dials: the increase of imported manufactured goods (a sign of deregulation, liberalisation, etc. and the subsequent globalisation), the decline of corporate financing via bank loans (a sign of financing via shareholders and of the subsequent “shareholder capitalism”), the increase of previously government−owned companies privatised, the decrease of government regulations, the increase in job mobility, and, particularly, the decline in the number of explicit, official cartels. Werner reports they are defined as official exeptions from the Anti−Monopoly Law granted by the Fair Trade Commission, and then compares their number with the nominal Gross Domestic Product growth rate expressed in percentage on a year−by−year basis. Let’s see…

Crime Against Humanity: Pensée Unique in Economics