Free Market: The History of an Idea

The book "Free Market: The History of an Idea" explores how the free market idea became powerful, why it succeeded, and why it has failed spectacularly. It shows that state-run China is the second biggest economy and that tiny Singapore has become a new model of wealth creation. Early market theorists believed that states had an important role in building and maintaining free markets, but in the eighteenth century, some free-market thinkers began insisting only pure free markets could work, leading to a tradition of free-market ideological brittleness.

Format: Hardback
Length: 336 pages
Publication date: 06 September 2022
Publisher: Basic Books

The free market thought is due for a serious reappraisal after two government bailouts of the American economy in less than twenty years. The book "Free Market: The History of an Idea" explores how the idea became so powerful, why it succeeded, and why it has failed so spectacularly. In 1990, the G7 Countries enjoyed 70 percent of world GDP, but in the past thirty years, that number has dropped by half, and Asia has emerged as a major motor of world economic growth. State-run China is now the second-biggest economy on earth, and tiny Singapore, with its state-owned companies, has become a new model of wealth creation. Milton Friedman's free market dogma, that only private companies can create wealth and that states hamper it, has not proved very clearly to be untrue.

This book shows how we got to the current crisis of free market thought and suggests how we can find our way out. Contrary to popular free market narratives, early market theorists believed that states had an important role in building and maintaining free markets. However, in the eighteenth century, some free-market thinkers began insisting only pure free markets, without state intervention, could work. This led to a tradition of free-market ideological brittleness, which has led orthodox free market economics to some spectacular failures.

It is a paradox that an economic theory rooted in the idea of competition, adaptation, and evolution has refused to follow its own precepts. This book shows that we need to go back to the origins of free market thought in order to understand its dynamism, as well as its inherent weaknesses, and to develop new economic concepts to face the challenges of the 21st century.

Weight: 540g
Dimension: 160 x 245 x 33 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780465049707