to remove protections against international economic volatility, especially financial and trade rules… [And] the labor ministry to revoke workers' rights in labor markets. This is despite the protection that South Africa's residual capital controls have provided against the global crisis" (Carreon 2009)
Criticisms of neo-liberalism are not new. Even during the time neo-liberal policies were most in vogue, neo-liberalism was not without its critics: "the rich grow richer and the poor grow poorer," was a common lament as social theorists proclaimed it merely a reformulation of 'trickle-down' economics or Adam Smith-style capitalism based upon the idea that eventually prosperity at the highest levels would trickle down to the lowest stratum of society (Martinez & Garcia 2000)
However, in the wake of the international recession, such 'givens' have been subjected to increasing scrutiny. The economic crisis that took hold of the world in the fall of 2008 was often described as the "end of neo-liberalism" (Kampfe 2009)
The ultimate (unreachable) goal of neo-liberalism is a universe where every action of every being is a market transaction, conducted in competition with every other being and influencing every other transaction, with transactions occurring in an infinitely short time, and repeated at an infinitely fast rate. It is no surprise that extreme forms of neo-liberalism, and especially cyberliberalism, overlap with semi-religious beliefs in the interconnectedness of the cosmos" (Treanor 2009)
When one phase cannot solve its problems, the solution has been a shift to the other phase. Thus, crises of capitalism have so far avoided provoking the alternative solution of a transition out of capitalism" (Wolffe 2009)