PART II: THE PIVOT (1973-1986)

A memo. A crisis. A doctrine. A sequence.

Thirteen years of technical adjustments—regulatory changes with forgettable names, tax provisions buried in thousand-page bills, judicial appointments that would pay dividends for decades. Each decision defensible in isolation. Together, a demolition project.

This section names the architects, dates the decisions, and traces how an economy designed for broad prosperity was rewired for concentrated extraction. The perpetrators were not hiding. They published their intentions in academic journals and celebrated them with prizes.