After a long hiatus, I’ve started writing for Russia! Magazine again. Here’s my re-debut article, “Ukraine’s New Neoliberal Necromancer,” on the Ukrainian Finance Ministry’s hiring of Arthur Laffer as an adviser on tax reform. Here’s a snippet:
As converts to the neoliberal faith, Ukraine’s government is ever eager for spiritual advice. While the debt standoff in Greece provided opportunity to declare its slavish devotion to austerity, and the recent Yalta European Strategy conference offered “faithful reflection” on “reform,” none of this can substitute getting personal spiritual council from the father of supply-side economics, Arthur Laffer.
In mid-September, in a barely noticed move, Ukraine’s Ministry of Finance named Laffer as an advisor on tax policy. According to the Ministry’s press release, this esteemed economic confidant of Reagan and Thatcher will help Ukraine create a tax system “which should contribute to the increase of investments, economic growth and employment as well as improve the quality of public services for business and thus provide a powerful stimulus for the sustainable economic growth of our country.” This statement’s vapid syntax should not go elided in a world where the “menace of unreality” dislodges materiality. Yet again, despite its utter bankruptcy as policy and principle, the neoliberal incantation that the interests of the “job creators” are the interest of all remains potent voodoo. That the Ukrainian government is now soliciting one of neoliberalism’s most influential necromancers is yet another indication where the Revolution of Dignity is really going.
