The failure of neoliberal globalization is demonstrated by the outbreak of the 2008 global crisis that erupted in the United States in the mortgage lending sector, which immediately spread to other parts of the world financial system, by the increase of the global imbalance in trade, savings and Investment and by social inequality materialized in the excessive concentration of wealth around the world.

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THE FAILURE OF NEOLIBERAL GLOBALIZATION
Fernando Alcoforado *
David Harvey, a British geographer and professor at the City University of New York,
says that; 1) neoliberalism is, in principle, the economic policy that supports the thesis
that human welfare can advance more with the liberalization of individual
entrepreneurship and the existence of an institutional structure characterized by strong
private companies, free market and free trade; 2) The role of the neoliberal state is to
create and preserve an institutional structure appropriate to such practices, ensuring, for
example, the quality and integrity of the currency, as well as having a military, defense,
police and legal structure, required to secure the rights of private property and ensure by
force, if necessary, the functioning of the markets; And, 3) state intervention in the
market must occur at a minimum level (HARVEY, David. A brief history of
neoliberalism. New York: Oxford University Press, 2007).
Harvey adds that neoliberalism proposes deregulation of the economy, privatizations of
state-owned enterprises, and withdrawal of the state from many areas of social service.
Almost every country in the world adhered voluntarily or under coercive pressure to
neoliberalism from the 1990s. Even China, which with Mao Zedong attempted to build
socialist society, adhered to neoliberalism under the leadership of Deng Xiaoping by
institutionalizing the so-called "Market Socialism" that represents the construction of a
capitalist market economy that incorporates, according to David Harvey, neoliberal
elements with centralized control of the state. With the abandonment of the socialist
project, the introduction of neoliberalism and the institutionalization of state capitalism
in China, the social protection of workers that existed in the time of Mao Zedong ceased
to exist.
In summary, in general, neoliberalism has as basic principles: 1) minimal participation
of the State in the direction of the national economy; 2) privatization policy of state-
owned enterprises; 3) little government intervention in the labor market; 4) free
movement of international capital and emphasis on globalization; 5) opening of the
economy to the entry of multinationals companies; 5) adoption of measures against
economic protectionism; 6) de-bureaucratization of the State through the adoption of
simpler economic laws and regulations to facilitate the functioning of the economy; 7)
decreasing the size of the state to make it more efficient; 8) non-interference by the
State in the prices of products and services that must be determined by the market based
on the law of supply and demand; 9) control of inflation by the State through monetary
policies based on inflation targets; 10) adoption by the State of the floating exchange
rate policy; And, 11) obtaining a fiscal surplus for payment of public debt.
The factors that triggered neo-liberal globalization were, on the one hand, the crisis of
the world capitalist system with the decline of the capital accumulation process on a
world scale aggravated by the tripling of oil prices, literally the fuel of capitalism, in
1973 and in 1979, when there was also a huge increase in US interest rates, which in the
1980s caused the so-called "external debt crisis" in peripheral capitalist countries. The
crisis of the world capitalist system occurred at various scales: politics, economics, and
social life, externally and internally in all countries. The whole crisis was demonstrated
by rising unemployment, falling investment levels and reduced capital profitability, the
fiscal crisis of national states, and so on. The answer to this was neoliberalism on the
basis of which new ideologies, new forms of administration, management, and
production were adopted. On the other hand, the end of the Soviet Union and the

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socialist system of Eastern Europe also contributed to the fact that several countries that
adopted socialism in Russia and Eastern Europe, as well as some that adopted the
Welfare State in Western Europe as a capitalist counterpoint to the socialist system to
replace it with the neoliberal model.
The failure of neoliberal globalization was set in the outbreak of the 2008 global crisis
that broke out in the United States in the mortgage lending sector, which immediately
spread to other parts of the world financial system, with a speed and extent that
surprised the market. The Asian Development Bank has estimated that financial assets
worldwide may have fallen by more than US$ 50 trillion - equivalent to the annual
global production. The financial system has suffered down losses on a scale no one has
ever predicted. The international financial system no longer works. The neoliberal
model that ruled the world in the last 40 years has died and there will be depression that
will last for many years.
The inevitable result of neoliberal globalization has been the increase in the global
imbalance in trade, savings and investment and social inequality materialized in the
excessive concentration of wealth around the world. This global imbalance in trade,
savings and investment was the result of the crisis that broke out in the United States in
2008 and spread worldwide and compromised the United States, UK and European
financial system with unsustainable debts. This imbalance forced countries like Greece
to have to adopt an austerity policy imposed by the European Central Bank under
pressure from the German banks creditors of their debt and left many neoliberal
countries with priceless indebtedness. For countries that have moved large parts of their
industries out of their territory and fed consumption with increased credit, the result has
always been to deal with trade deficits, high government indebtedness, and instability in
the financial sector.
Asia's trade surplus with the rest of the world, from Germany to Europe, the relentless
capital accumulation of oil exporters at the expense of other indebted nations has
allowed the United States, the United Kingdom, and countries in southern Western
Europe to get into debt beyond limits. It is necessary to understand that neoliberalism
exists only because some countries do not practice neoliberalism as it is the case of
Germany, China and Japan that adopt what their critics call "neo mercantilism" with the
manipulation of their trade, investment and currency positions to accumulate large
volume of money from other countries. The main deficits in the current account balance
are in the United States and in many European countries. The surplus countries are
China, the rest of Asia, Germany, Japan and oil producing countries.
The global imbalance in trade poses two very dangerous issues: (1) it can flood the
economies of the West with too much credit whose financial system would collapse;
And 2) the accumulated risk and instability in the world would be centered on an
arrangement between national states on debts and exchange rates that would then
collapse. This danger still exists. If the United States does not finance its debts, then the
Dollar will collapse. To compromise globalization, countries can use protectionism,
manipulate the currency, or default the debt. The Donald Trump government intends to
embrace protectionism that threatens globalization and the free market. Germany, China
and Japan will continue to manipulate their currencies and the indebted countries will
either default or submit to their creditors. The world will be drawn into a "scorched
earth" situation as a result of neoliberal globalization.

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In turn, social inequality reaches alarming levels throughout the world. Thomas Piketty
has shown that there has been continuous growth in wealth inequality since the 1970s,
contrary to the trend of the previous 60 years and much more pronounced and socially
relevant than income inequality. From 1970 to 2010, the richest 1% (dominant classes)
held half of all world wealth, while the poorest 50% (popular classes) was only 5%. The
number of billionaires, according to Piketty, increased from 1,011 with a total wealth of
3.6 trillion in 1970 to 1,826 with an aggregate value of 7.05 trillion in 2010. In 2010,
this group had practically the same as the poorest half of humanity. Five years later, it
took more than three-quarters (PIKETTY, Thomas. Capital in the twenty-first century.
Cambridge: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2014). Social inequality
around the world makes neoliberal globalization unsustainable.
*Fernando Alcoforado , member of the Bahia Academy of Education, engineer and doctor of Territorial
Planning and Regional Development from the University of Barcelona, a university professor and
consultant in strategic planning, business planning, regional planning and planning of energy systems, is
the author of Globalização (Editora Nobel, São Paulo, 1997), De Collor a FHC- O Brasil e a Nova
(Des)ordem Mundial (Editora Nobel, São Paulo, 1998), Um Projeto para o Brasil (Editora Nobel, São
Paulo, 2000), Os condicionantes do desenvolvimento do Estado da Bahia (Tese de doutorado.
Universidade de Barcelona, http://www.tesisenred.net/handle/10803/1944, 2003), Globalização e
Desenvolvimento (Editora Nobel, São Paulo, 2006), Bahia- Desenvolvimento do Século XVI ao Século XX
e Objetivos Estratégicos na Era Contemporânea (EGBA, Salvador, 2008), The Necessary Conditions of
the Economic and Social Development-The Case of the State of Bahia (VDM Verlag Dr. Muller
Aktiengesellschaft & Co. KG, Saarbrücken, Germany, 2010), Aquecimento Global e Catástrofe
Planetária (P&A Gráfica e Editora, Salvador, 2010), Amazônia Sustentável- Para o progresso do Brasil e
combate ao aquecimento global (Viena- Editora e Gráfica, Santa Cruz do Rio Pardo, São Paulo, 2011),
Os Fatores Condicionantes do Desenvolvimento Econômico e Social (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2012),
Energia no Mundo e no Brasil- Energia e Mudança Climática Catastrófica no Século XXI (Editora CRV,
Curitiba, 2015) and As Grandes Revoluções Científicas, Econômicas e Sociais que Mudaram o Mundo
(Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2016), among others.