I see the term liberalism being bandied about when talking about deregulation. I’m not very familiar with politics, but that seems to be something more familiar to the conservatives (republicans), than the liberals; I’m not very comfortable with the attempt to pin deregulation and the rest of it onto the liberals. Enron for instance; http://www.economist.com/node/938154 — shows it as something more in tune to the conservatives. Even in the present USA political climate, the conservatives continue to push for deregulation. I guess what I’m saying is that it reads to me as attempting to pass the buck to the liberals when it actually belongs elsewhere.
It depend of the context or/and where you use the term. In the US or for social policies, the term liberalism is used for something like progressivism.
In Europe or for economics policies, liberalism means free trade and deregulation.
When an US citizen say liberal, he's talking about society.
When an EU citizen say liberal, he's talking about economics. This make sometimes translation difficult.
In the context of the article, while US, with the focus on economics. They are using the classical or the european meaning.
But yeah Republican are conservatives on social policies and liberal on economics policies.
Democrat are liberal on social policies and less liberal on economics (but still very liberal compared to an socialist party).
Economic liberalism is an economic system organized on individual lines, which means that the greatest possible number of economic decisions are made by individuals or households rather than by collective institutions or organizations.
It includes a spectrum of different economic policies, such as freedom of movement, but it is always based on strong support for a market economy and private property in the means of production. Although economic liberalism can also be supportive of government regulation to a certain degree, it tends to oppose government intervention in the free market when it inhibits free trade and open competition.
