Adam Davidson and "neoliberalism"

Yesterday on NPR on a broadcast before the Nobel prizes for economics were announced, Davidson said that the prize was controversial, because

• It was not part of Alfred Nobel's bequest
• It was biased in favor of neoliberalism
• The most influential economists were awarded the prize in the 70's and early 80's

Interestingly, these points raised in the wikipedia entry about the controversy about the Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel. Then Steve Inskeep asked what "neoliberalism" was. Davidson seemed a little at a loss, but ended up saying that it was the opposite of liberalism. In fact, neoliberals are often in favor of personal freedoms that leftists are, it's just that they believe in free markets as well.

The broadcast NPR has available now doesn't go into that. Davidson simply concludes that while in the past, winners were "aggressive free market economists", this year's winners "may indicate a change in how the prizes are awarded."

According to his biography

Davidson’s reports focus on the effects of increased global trade on the U.S. economy, U.S. workers, and U.S. competitiveness...

Davidson has visited countries that are undergoing dramatic economic change, such as China, to help listeners make sense of the sometimes overwhelming and confusing phenomenon of globalization. By introducing listeners to the people most affected by globalization, Davidson says he hopes to help listeners "better understand the profound changes happening in every part of the world."

It sounds like he wants to find the bad news about globalization, but in other reports, he ends up talking about the benefits of free trade.