Free market defenders need to find their voice
by Roger Bootle
31 Marzo 2008
"The ideas of economists and political philosophers, both when they are
right and when they are wrong, are more powerful than is commonly
understood. Indeed the world is ruled by little else. Practical men,
who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual
influences, are usually the slaves of some defunct economist. Madmen in
authority, who hear voices in the air, are distilling their frenzy from
some academic scribbler of a few years back."
The author of those words was himself both academic scribbler and
practical man - John Maynard Keynes. And how right he was. For the past
30 years, the dominant intellectual tide in politics and economics has
been the view that the role of governments in the economy needs to be
kept to a minimum. Free markets work best. They are certainly not
perfect but they are much less imperfect than the alternative.<…
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