description: abstention by governments from interfering in the workings of the free market
144 results
by Gil Durán · 17 Aug 2026 · 317pp · 114,570 words
of people around the world. But the decade ended in yet another cataclysm: a stock market collapse of historic proportion. The crash of 1929 discredited laissez-faire capitalism, leading to the Great Depression and, in a response, Franklin D. Roosevelt’s slate of reforms. The orgy of greed and racism gave way to
by Ayn Rand · 15 Aug 1966 · 400pp · 129,841 words
The Objectivist Newsletter (January 1962): “Objectivism is a philosophical movement; since politics is a branch of philosophy, Objectivism advocates certain political principles—specifically, those of laissez-faire capitalism—as the consequence and the ultimate practical application of its fundamental philosophical principles. It does not regard politics as a separate or primary goal, that
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and enemies to this day.) Yet it is capitalism that today’s peace-lovers oppose and statism that they advocate—in the name of peace. Laissez-faire capitalism is the only social system based on the recognition of individual rights and, therefore, the only system that bans force from social relationships. By the
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its intellectuals? The position of a hated, persecuted minority. The position of a scapegoat for the evils of the bureaucrats. A system of pure, unregulated laissez-faire capitalism has never yet existed anywhere. What did exist were only so-called mixed economies, which means: a mixture, in varying degrees, of freedom and controls
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and efficient members of our society because they are productive and efficient. 5. COMMON FALLACIES ABOUT CAPITALISM by Nathaniel Branden MONOPOLIES IN A SOCIETY OF LAISSEZ-FAIRE CAPITALISM, WHAT WOULD PREVENT THE FORMATION OF POWERFUL MONOPOLIES ABLE TO GAIN CONTROL OVER THE ENTIRE ECONOMY? One of the worst fallacies in the field of
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the principle that the government may not abridge the freedom of production and trade. (JUNE 1962.) DEPRESSIONS ARE PERIODIC DEPRESSIONS INEVITABLE IN A SYSTEM OF LAISSEZ-FAIRE CAPITALISM? It is characteristic of the enemies of capitalism that they denounce it for evils which are, in fact, the result not of capitalism but of
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about things which are merely the result of their own policies.35 (JUNE 1963.) CAPITALISM’S PRACTICALITY IS THERE ANY VALIDITY TO THE CLAIM THAT LAISSEZ-FAIRE CAPITALISM BECOMES LESS PRACTICABLE AS SOCIETY BECOMES MORE COMPLEX? This claim is the sort of collectivist bromide that “liberals” repeat ritualistically, without any attempt to prove
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control of the economy, no matter in whose behalf, has been the source of all the evils in our industrial history—and the solution is laissez-faire capitalism, i.e., the abolition of any and all forms of government intervention in production and trade, the separation of State and Economics, in the same
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its avowed enemies. Such “conservatives” regard capitalism as a system compatible with government controls, and thus help to spread the most dangerous misconceptions. While full, laissez-faire capitalism has not yet existed anywhere, while some (unnecessary) government controls were allowed to dilute and undercut the original American system (more through error than through
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-being of all its members. Freedom is not a sufficient condition to assure man’s proper fulfillment, but it is a necessary condition. And capitalism—laissez-faire capitalism—is the only system which provides that condition. The problem of alienation is not metaphysical; it is not man’s natural fate, never to be
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had probably tried to give a Christian message relevant to the world’s contemporary economic situation, his encyclical virtually ignored the fact that old-style laissez-faire capitalism is about as dead as Das Kapital. Quite clearly, the Pope’s condemnation of capitalism was addressed to the unreconstructed variety that persists, for example
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rights.” The term “individual rights” is a redundancy: there is no other kind of rights and no one else to possess them. Those who advocate laissez-faire capitalism are the only advocates of man’s rights. APPENDIX: THE NATURE OF GOVERNMENT by Ayn Rand A government is an institution that holds the exclusive
by Anatole Kaletsky · 22 Jun 2010 · 484pp · 136,735 words
the First World War, the Russian Revolution, and finally the Great Depression in the United States. These unprecedented political and economic traumas destroyed the classical laissez-faire capitalism of the nineteenth century and created a different version of the capitalist system, embracing Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal, Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society, and
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-economic model emerging from the crisis, it helps to consider the changing relationships of governments and markets in these three previous phases. In the classical laissez-faire capitalism that dominated the world from the early nineteenth century until 1930, politics and economics were essentially distinct spheres. The interactions of government and markets were
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herself in an essay on her objectivist philosophy that had inspired Greenspan and other American conservatives for two generations: “The ideal political-economic system is laissez-faire capitalism . . . In a system of full capitalism, there should be (but, historically, has not yet been) a complete separation of state and economics, in the same
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a serious long-term rival, but as a temporary roadblock to the onward march of liberalism and free trade.7 The only alternative to classical laissez-faire capitalism—and one that was viewed seriously as a potential rival—appeared to be the abolition of private property, money, and even mankind’s competitive instinct
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by Knickerbockers, Special Constables, and Cossacks. During and after the war, they started to fight back in earnest. Marx had predicted correctly, albeit prematurely, that laissez-faire capitalism would succumb to its internal contradictions, even as it grew stronger. And he had been proved right. The newly enfranchised working classes were organizing in
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—a combination of rising inflation and unemployment that appeared inexplicable in both Keynesian and monetarist economics—was comparable to the collapse of confidence in liberal laissez-faire capitalism that occurred in the Great Depression of 1929-39. That traumatic decade, characterized in Part I as the transition from Capitalism 1 to Capitalism 2
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challenge the central assumption of REH—that booms, busts, and recessions are all caused by various types of market failure and therefore that breakdowns in laissez-faire capitalism could, at least in principle, be prevented by making markets more perfect, for example, by disseminating information or strengthening the regulations against fraud. Partly because
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. Conservatives Will Keep Winning Until Progressives Find a Narrative Left-of-center parties around the world have failed to benefit from a catastrophic crisis of laissez-faire capitalism and an unprecedented public revulsion against wealth and finance. This failure points to an asymmetry between progressive and conservative politics that is particularly damaging to
by Robert Higgs and Arthur A. Ekirch, Jr. · 15 Jan 1987
end of the 1940s a residual capitalist vitality in the American economic order, he emphasized that "we have traveled far indeed from the principles of laissez-faire capitalism." 5 Although he conceded that crises such as war or depression would accelerate the secular tendencies, he denied that "any mere 'events,' even events of
by Jeff Walker · 30 Dec 1998 · 525pp · 146,126 words
it. By 1957, some of Rand’s more youthfully optimistic disciples were convinced that the world would be almost instantly converted to her selfishness-based laissez-faire capitalism, from the collectivist corruption she had dramatized in Atlas Shrugged. Just as the novel ends with society in ruins and the heroes of Galt’s
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Randian lens. Pierpont describes Rand’s readership as the largely abandoned class of thinking nonintellectuals. Joan Kennedy Taylor concurs: “Many thought that Rand had invented laissez-faire capitalism. . . . dentists, engineers, and so on loved this vision of a technologically advancing logical world, but this was the first they had dealt with ideas in
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excited child in us all . . . Leonards projections were so extravagantly wild that they bordered on hysteria. He spoke of the conversion of the country to laissez-faire capitalism and the ideals of individualism ‘within a year’. He even wondered what there was left for him to do in philosophy, since Ayn had said
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in the West. London: Viking, 1992. ———. The Unconscious Civilization. Toronto: Anansi, 1995. Schneider, Norbert. Vermeer. Köln: Benedikt Taschen, 1994. Schwartz, Peter, ed. The Battle for Laissez-Faire Capitalism: Essays Reprinted from the Intellectual Activist. New York, 1983. ———. Libertarianism: The Perversion of Liberty. Audiotape. New Milford: Second Renaissance, 1985 ———. Libertarianism—Q & A. Audiotape. The
by Paul Kennedy · 15 Jan 1989 · 1,477pp · 311,310 words
avenged the war of 1904–1905, but allowed a link-up with Mao’s Chinese Communists, who were also unlikely to swallow the gospel of laissez-faire capitalism. But if this growth of Soviet influence looked imposing, its economic base had been badly hurt by the war—in contrast to the United States
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, say, France or Britain; and that those same geographical dimensions, and the entrepreneurial opportunities within them, encouraged the development of a largely unreconstructed form of laissez-faire capitalism which has dominated the political culture of the nation (despite occasional counterattacks from the left). In consequence, the “earnings gap” between rich and poor in
by Jennifer Burns · 18 Oct 2009 · 495pp · 144,101 words
process of thought itself, she argued. And since man’s survival depended on his own thought, individuals must be left free. Rationality thus connected to laissez-faire capitalism, the only economic system that sought to maximize individual freedom. Placing rationality at the heart of her philosophy also began to shift the grounding of
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had reached after the Willkie campaign—that a popular consensus on the virtues of capitalism had to be established before electoral success could be achieved. Laissez-faire capitalism belonged to the uncharted future rather than the past. The senator himself seemed to accept Rand’s explanation for his defeat, quoting her in his
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more libertarians to positions of power, establishing a permanent network of libertarian communications within the organization, and ensuring that all YAF members were educated about laissez-faire capitalism. “Libertarian Caucus: Credo,” undated, YAF: 1969 Convention, Box 24, Evers Papers. 21. In 1970 the National Board passed a resolution including anarchy on a list
by Peter Marshall · 2 Jan 1992 · 1,327pp · 360,897 words
systematic destruction of individual thought, an inquisitorial police, with ‘universal suffrage organized to serve a perpetual sanction to this anonymous tyranny’.107 In place of laissez-faire capitalism and State socialism, Proudhon finally proposed once again his system of mutualism as the only way to create a free society: ‘In this system the
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is not desirable: people should enjoy the results of their superiority of muscle or brain. But while retaining private property and admiring certain aspects of laissez-faire capitalism, he was critical of the ‘system of violence, robbery, and fraud that the plutocrats call “law and order”’.28 Although Emma Goldman complained that his
by Nicholas Wapshott · 2 Aug 2021 · 453pp · 122,586 words
own suicide?” asked Samuelson the following year. “At the bottom of this worst financial mess in a century is this: Milton Friedman-Friedrich Hayek libertarian laissez-faire capitalism, permitted to run wild without regulation. This is the root source of today’s travails. Both of these men are dead, but their poisoned legacies
by Benjamin Barber · 20 Apr 2010 · 454pp · 139,350 words
, and in the international arena such democratic tools are entirely absent. Even within nation-states, we are eschewing the tools we have. The dogmas of laissez-faire capitalism that have suffused the politics of America and Europe in the last few decades have been reinforced by the resentments of an alienated electorate that
by Mark Walker · 29 Nov 2015
by Alan Greenspan · 14 Jun 2007
by Jeff Madrick · 11 Jun 2012 · 840pp · 202,245 words
by David Friedman · 2 Jan 1978 · 328pp · 92,317 words
by George R. Tyler · 15 Jul 2013 · 772pp · 203,182 words
by John Maynard Keynes · 13 Jul 2018
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by John Cassidy · 10 Nov 2009 · 545pp · 137,789 words
by Don Watkins and Yaron Brook · 28 Mar 2016 · 345pp · 92,849 words
by William N. Goetzmann · 11 Apr 2016 · 695pp · 194,693 words
by Ayn Rand, Leonard Peikoff and Peter Schwartz · 1 Jan 1989 · 411pp · 136,413 words
by Mark Skousen · 22 Dec 2006 · 330pp · 77,729 words
by Thomas J. Dilorenzo · 9 Aug 2004 · 283pp · 81,163 words
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