ABSTRACT
Scanning the headlines a day or so after the surprise of the ‘Brexit’ on 23 June 2016 with 52% voting to leave the EU, a number of commentators examined its loaded significance for the neoliberal ideal of globalization. One such commentator writing for the Economic Times suggested: Brexit heralds not just Britain’s exit from the European Union but the decline and maybe fall of the twentieth century ideal of a liberal, globalised world. Capital account liberalization has revealed uncertain growth benefits with increasing bouts of economic volatility and crisis frequency. It heralds a twenty-first century ethos based on ultra-nationalism and racist xenophobia, blaming foreigners and minorities for all ills, and claiming against all logic and humanism that turning back on the world will somehow bring back a golden past. The costs in terms of increased inequality are prominent. Such costs epitomise the trade-off between the growth and equity effects of some aspects of the neoliberal agenda.
