Neoliberalism was anticipated to Keynesianism when the 1973 oil crisis severely hit the Western economy and the slowdown in growth and inflation began to occur simultaneously. This phenomenon is known as stagflation. The neoliberals used the situation to establish their doctrine, and there were the heads of government Reagan and Thatcher to execute it.

In the coming decades, neoliberalism gained strength in theory and in economic policy and became mainstream in every capitalist country. To strengthen this economic thinking and practice, the Washington Consensus, adopted in 1989, was decisive. The economy had to be governed by the market, all public enterprises had to be privatized, public budgets balanced and the economy deregulated, among other things. In addition, neoliberal predictions pointed to the disappearance of economic inequalities, as well as greater agility of crises.

Four decades passed, but crises continued to appear sporadically. In our country, the serious crisis of 1992-93 stands out. Finally, we had the international crisis of 2008, in which neoliberal theories had known a remarkable failure. These theories have been challenged by major economists like Joseph Stiglitz or Paul Krugman in the United States. In the French State, Thomas Piketty has demonstrated with statistical data that throughout the era of neoliberalism economic aspects have intensified and that heritage has been concentrated in fewer hands, richer and more widespread poverty. We already know that Piketty has become one of the hardest enemies of neoliberals and that attempts to deny their theories are increasing.

Therefore, in the previous two decades the first pillars against neoliberalism were placed, and later more economists have come. Recently, Olivier Blanchard and Dani Rodrik have published an interesting book entitled Fighting for Inequalities (editorial Deusto), with contributions from numerous economists from prestigious universities such as Harvard, MIT, Berkeley, Princeton. Everyone agrees that economic aspects have increased in this capitalist model, that heritage is constantly being concentrated and that something needs to be done, even if substantial differences have occurred in defining economic policies. They have great discrepancies in proposing reforms of this unjust capitalist system: in the area of taxation of higher incomes, wealth or succession. However, neoliberalism has been the subject of strong criticism of the serious situation.
Blanchard was head of the research service of the International Monetary Fund and it is known that this institution has been a driving force for neoliberalism in recent decades, although it has been changing slightly lately, in view of the application of neoliberal doctrines to the world economy. On the contrary, Rodri has been critical of the functioning of the capitalist system.

The contributions of the book are fine, but these economists do not take into account that natural resources are limited and that growth will not be forever. They also prevent climate change from affecting economic activity. Perhaps these serious problems will arise next time, as well as the crisis that has exacerbated the cruel war between Ukraine and Russia.