Any astute reader will ask: “Why in the world would the Foundation for Economic Education publish this sort of thing?” Well, consider the original publication date. Then look at the publisher: The Nation, the leading journal of liberal opinion at the time. Then look at the editor: Henry Hazlitt, author of Economics in One Lesson and a FEE trustee. You might expect, then, that there is a huge backstory here.
Throughout history, changing a country’s politics and statutes has been the final goal of forceful popular attempts to contain power, but mass refusal to accept political abuses has always begun in the culture.
Sharing my love of these times was the late Joey Rothbard, wife of Murray. We used to talk about the Gilded Age all evening, particularly the culture of the times: the music, painting, architecture, and daily technology. She frequently recommended that I read Age of Innocence by the great American writer Edith Wharton. She told me that more than any other work, this book captured everything I needed to know. She kept asking me if I had read it yet. I was too busy with my head full of political economy so I never got around to it. Just recently, I found the movie version. It is amazing.
The term “neoliberalism” is being flung around everywhere these days, usually with a haughty sense of “everyone knows what this is.” But do we really? You may think you know, but there’s very little agreement among everyone else. But look closely at the origin of the term: it has a precise meaning. It is not liberty as we want to know it.
I had actually hoped that the repeal of Obamacare would be Trump’s equivalent of FDR’s actions to repeal alcohol prohibition, the one thing he would accomplish as a sop to the voters who backed him. No such luck.
