The end of neo-liberalism is here.

It was only the cant of the self interested dressed up as economic philosophy.
It was characterised by:

An insane and irrational hatred of Unions.
A dislike of ’step up’ socio-economic policies, such a free education, technical training, etc.
An incredible ‘kow towing’ to financial and traditional elites, manufacturing elites didn't do as well.
A real suspicion of science, particularly research, especially in areas that conflicted with idiological postions.
A belief that the resources of the world are infinite.

All in all, its a desire to return to an imagined late 19th century social and economic order, to murder the new deal in the bath.
Their fiercer cousins, neo-conservatives, took that further, wanting to go back to an 18th/19th century World colonial order.

Like a revenge by throwbacks from the 1890’s who got passed by modernity.

The fact that it was insane and illogical escaped them, the imagined 1890’s Nirvana never existed.(in reality it was a period of immense turmoil and change).

The greatest new buyers of this line of thought came mostly from middle class backgrounds, which barely existed in the 1890's, if the project actually successful they would essentially be eliminating their own class.

Bizzaro stuff. Denounce workers for supporting protectionism (tariffs, quotas, subsidies, etc). Use the required basic economic model to show the inefficiencies, but not the longer term economic benefits and not even consider flexible labor markets in the services of highly-paid professions (economists, executives, surgeons, etc).

So what is the new economic order? More local production? Less trade? Where is the capital coming from? What about skill levels? What sort of society do we want?

We can make quick changes, Australia before the 2nd World War was broke and could not even make a gun but by the end we were making, here in Australia, guns, ships, radar, computers, Mustangs and Mosquitos (the F-22 and F-35 of their day).

So it ain’t over until it is over. And in the end, the big boys, US, EU, China, Japan, will make their own good/bad decisions. But what are our decisions? What is right for us? What can we do to get through this? How can we emerge with a strong economy and a good standard of living?

Nobody knows because this is not a recession, its a collapse of the US dollar paradigm, the current pattern of globalisation, the end of new investments in prior energy production systems and ground zero of the complete disintermediation of traditional content delivery systems.

The future is another country and for now we stumble through no mans land between the country we have left and the undiscovered country of tomorrow.