Crime Against Humanity: Pensée Unique in Economics, 8

The outcome of this operation is that of a successful strategy of conquest of territories and minds. Werner again: “Neoclassical economists have moved beyond being appointed central bank governors, ministers of the economy or treasury secretaries. They have even become prime ministers or Presidents. In these positions of influence they have done much to advance the policy programme of the neoclassical school of thought. Neoclassical economics has dominated the decisions of the large international organizations that deal with economic policy. Among them, regional development banks, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, the Bank if International Settlements, the World Trade Organization, as well as the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development stand out. Early on, these institutions had focused on hiring and advancing the careers of adherents of the neoclassical school of thought. Thanks to the legal, financial and political muscle of these institutions, especially the IMF and the World Bank, the neoclassical free market economics was projected beyond the limitations of a small number of industrialized countries where it had been developed and made its mark on the world by affecting the lives of millions of people in the most far−flung corners of the earth. In over 100 countries, central bank policies, IMF−led structural adjustment programmes and development bank−led reform packages drastically changed fiscal policy, monetary policy, regulatory policy and many aspects of how societies are organized, each time along the neoclassical lines. This could take the form of cutting food subsidies for the financially weak or privatizing the supply of drinking water, thus often pricing the poor out of their water supply.”