The 2008 bailouts discredited neoliberalism but not capitalist realism itself.

Evidence

The speculations that capitalism might be on the verge of collapsing soon proved to be unfounded. It quickly became clear that, far from constituting the end of capitalism, the bank bail-outs were a massive re-assertion of the capitalist realist insistence that there is no alternative. Allowing the banking system to disintegrate was held to be unthinkable, and what ensued was a vast hemor-rhaging of public money into private hands. Nevertheless, what did happen in 2008 was the collapse of the framework which has provided ideological cover for capitalist accumulation since the 1970s. After the bank bail-outs neoliberalism has, in every sense, been discredited. That is not to say that neoliberalism has disappeared overnight; on the contrary, its assumptions continue to dominate political economy, but they do so now no longer as part of an ideological project that has a confident forward momentum, but as inertial, undead defaults. We can now see that, while neoliberalism was necessarily capitalist realist, capitalist realism need not be neoliberal. — Mark Fisher, Capitalist Realism, 161

Categorization

• DEFINE: Separates ‘neoliberalism’ (a discredited ideological project) from ‘capitalist realism’ (a deeper default that survives it) — a key analytical distinction.
• XREF: connects to: Capitalist realism makes alternatives to capitalism unthinkable — Mark Fisher, Capitalist Realism: Is There No…, 8; The 2008 crisis was expected to falsify neoliberal doctrine but did not — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 80; The 2008 crisis disoriented the left instead of vindicating its economic worldview — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 46 (+6 more)

Related

• The 2008 bailouts discredited neoliberalism while powerfully reasserting capitalist realism. (similarity 0.96)
• The bank bailouts radically discredited neoliberalism’s core ideas. (similarity 0.95)
• The 2008 bank bailouts delegitimized the political centre ground myth (similarity 0.87)
• The 2008 crisis was expected to falsify neoliberal doctrine but did not (similarity 0.86)
• The 2008 crisis killed none of the economic ideas that caused it (similarity 0.84)
• The 2008 crisis reinforced rather than refuted neoliberal and orthodox economic doctrine (similarity 0.83)
• Left academics wrongly assumed the 2008 crash would doom neoliberalism (similarity 0.83)
• The 2008 crisis falsified neoclassical economic theory yet elites kept using it. (similarity 0.83)
• Neoliberalism survived the 2008 crisis relatively unscathed. (similarity 0.82)
• Bailouts persisted because nobody could admit the economy was ungovernable (similarity 0.82)
• The 2008 crisis disoriented the left instead of vindicating its economic worldview (similarity 0.82)
• Observers widely expected the 2008 crash to refute neoliberal doctrine (similarity 0.82)
• The 2008 crisis produced no genuine reform and empowered the political right (similarity 0.81)
• Opponents of neoliberalism could not locate the intellectual roots of the 2008 crisis (similarity 0.81)
• Crisis commentary from 2008-10 shared one syllogism, that failure proves neoliberalism dying (similarity 0.81)

Broader Connections

• The 2008 crisis was expected to falsify neoliberal doctrine but did not #expands (0.85) — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 80
• Neoliberalism’s opponents, not its own theory, collapsed after the crisis #corroborates (0.85) — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 25
• The 2008 crisis disoriented the left instead of vindicating its economic worldview #corroborates (0.80) — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 46
• The 2008 crisis originated in private-sector practices, not state spending #corroborates (0.75) — Mark Blyth, Austerity, 76