Dr. Martin Hash Podcast

The concept of “Free” Trade was formalized in the 1990s by economist John Williamson; the neoliberal policies of "stabilize, privatize, and liberalize trade." It was adopted by Washington, D.C.-based institutions; the IMF, World Bank, and U.S. Treasury, so it became known as the “Washington Consensus,” and was immediately contentious. For example, the policy's emphasis on penetrating developing countries by global markets before those countries had established economic equilibrium of their own. There was also the concern that Markets would eclipse State functions. It was during this period that Globalist power was at its peak, with international conglomerates overwhelming small countries in court, crushing all their nationalistic aims.

Essentially, the Washington Consensus exploits the fact that immigration controls are the equivalent of tariffs on labor, with the difference in pay profiting international corporations. Developing countries were encouraged to implement the policies of the Washington Consensus as a condition for receiving loans from the IMF and World Bank; emphasizing Free Markets by reducing State regulation, and impinging on national sovereignty. Often, the reforms led to destabilization, especially in Latin America; the same kind of problems that have caused the increasing income inequality in the United States. The Washington Consensus is generally considered to be a failed concept; it's now accepted that economic strategies work best if they are specifically designed for individual countries, but the chaos it wrought still lingers, and Globalists have not gone away quietly.