The Free Market: A False Idol After All?

New York Times by Peter S. Goodman | Dec. 30, 2007 (Comment)

For more than a quarter-century, the dominant idea guiding economic policy in the United States and much of the globe has been that the market is unfailingly wise. So wise that the proper role for government is to steer clear and not mess with the gusher of wealth that will flow, trickling down to the every level of society, if only the market is left to do its magic.

That notion has carried the day as industries have been unshackled from ... Full Story »

Posted by Leo Romero

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Marty Heyman
2.2
 by Marty Heyman - Oct. 1, 2008

Peter Goodman is not quite as uncritical cheerleader as Thomas Friedman but he's close here. This is the Corporatist apology for another market gone stupid and ugly. The article casts it as a speed-bump and ultimately calls for resumption of the same deregulation and "free market" behavior with little thought to any of the real issues. There is no thought to what it means that Arab and Chinese capital has purchased significant portions of key US financial institutions nor to the macro-economic significance of the "capital infusions". It is an attempt to recast disaster as a momentary glitch. This is a forgettable bit of feel-good filler that will never be remembered as useful after the mess sorts itself out. People should read Polanyi's "Great Transformation".

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