THE Washington Consensus is in my view was something of a Schrodinger's Cat. Alive when the West were telling others to follow it, dead when they were the ones supposed to follow it, even before it became evident that the West did not apply it to them when the financial crisis came to them in 2008. Yet, some less up-to-date people, like many in the Philippines, kept following it like some religious dogma even when already repudiated elsewhere, even where it originated — Washington, D.C., and London. Last Tuesday's election in the US was the decades overdue cremation of the Washington Consensus where both parties had varied views on how it failed and different policies on what next, which were in clear repudiation of the Consensus.
For those too lazy to know what the Washington Consensus, which has been slavishly and dogmatically followed by the overwhelming super majority of our economists, policymakers and some businessmen (but not the more quietly pragmatic ones), here is what it is. Here is a quote from Wikipedia:
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