The Cult of the Market : Economic Fundamentalism and its Discontents

Abstract

Madmen in authority, who hear voices in the air, are distilling their frenzy from some academic scribbler of a few years back. — J. M. Keynes1 Let us clear from the ground the metaphysical or general principle upon which, from time to time, laissez-faire has been founded. It is not true that individuals possess a prescriptive ‘natural liberty’ in their economic activities. There is no ‘compact’ conferring perpetual rights on those who Have or those who Acquire. The world is not so governed from above that private and social interests always coincide. It is not a correct deduction from the Principles of Economics that enlightened self-interest always operates in the public interest. Nor is it true that self-interest generally is enlightened; more often individuals acting separately to promote their own ends are too ignorant or too weak to attain even these. Experience does not show that individuals, when they make up a social unit, are always less clear-sighted than when they act separately. — J. M. Keynes2 There