This chapter concentrates on one of the best examples of a neoliberal problem—that of intellectual property (IP). Since the 1980s, IP rights have moved from the periphery to the center of conflicts over the shape and future of the world economy. The shift of the US economy's competitive edge from manufacturing to entertainment, apparel, pharmaceuticals, and information technology has led policy-makers and corporate interests to seek globally enforceable protection of the often intangible and easily reproducible recipes for drugs or sequences of bits that become movies or software as well as trademarks, designs, circuit board layouts, and other lucrative pieces of information. The last change of the thirty companies in the Dow Jones Industrial Index reflects the ongoing shift in the US economy as the aluminum company Alcoa and telecom giant AT&T made way for Apple and Nike in 2015.

Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, loc. 163