Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
both for resources and new markets. Consequently, transnational corpo-
rations were able to take advantage of the deregulation of trade regimes
and of the New International Division of Labour (NIDL) which provided
lower labour costs in the Third World. They were, therefore, able to keep
high-skilled employment at home in the West's core economies, which
helped accumulate profits even further (Wright, 2002). Governments
concerned with bloated budgets and declining revenues sought entrepre-
neurial 'supply-side' solutions, and embraced free-marketeering, priva-
tization and deregulation as their new policies. They replaced their
managerial roles with entrepreneurialism, so that public subsidization
of private sector initiatives became a bidding competition to attract cor-
poration branch plants to their jurisdictions.
International finance also changed its character under neoliberal
deregulation. Banks, no longer content to invest solely in domestic ven-
tures, expanded their loan portfolios into international markets.
International financial markets diversified and became an intercon-
nected global system in which capital could be transferred instantly and
freely, 24 hours a day. There was the growth of global accounting giants
who served the interests of their corporate partners with the manage-
ment of their portfolios, their capital transfers and the like, which effec-
tively centralized global financial power. These oligarchic alliances
accordingly promised security to international capital interests, but less
accountability to nation states and governmental authority. 'Soft capital-
ism' is Thrift's (2005) label for this deceptive and increasingly self-serving,
global enterprise in which the international business and finance com-
munities practised institutional and managerial knowledge-based,
self-regulatory authority. In reality, their claims for caring and sharing,
accountability and transparency were/are dubious covers for pursuing
their shared interests in capital accumulation, profit and wealth crea-
tion. Data management and manipulation, corporate-controlled 'science'
and R&D, as well as fraudulent financial accounting practices, also find
their way into this interconnected morass of academics and public-
private sector assessment institutions, so that unethical practices and a
disdain for accountability characterize these two partners' neoliberal,
global worlds (Conway and Heynen, 2005).
Neoliberal capitalism's particular feat since its emergence in the 1980s
has been to increase social divisions, widen the economic gap between
the very rich and the very poor, and centralize authority for the manage-
ment of corporate and financial capital. It has elevated 'soft capitalism'
to a position of unassailable influence in global financial affairs, and
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