"A carefully researched work of intellectual history, and an urgently needed political analysis." --Jane Mayer “[A] scorching indictment of free market fundamentalism ... and how we can change, before it's too late.”-Esquire, Best Books of Winter 2023 The bestselling authors of Merchants of Doubt offer a profound, startling history of one of America's most tenacious--and destructive--false ideas: the myth of the "free market." In their bestselling book Merchants of Doubt, Naomi Oreskes and Erik M. Conway revealed the origins of climate change denial. Now, they unfold the truth about another disastrous dogma: the “magic of the marketplace.” In the early 20th century, business elites, trade associations, wealthy powerbrokers, and media allies set out to build a new American orthodoxy: down with “big government” and up with unfettered markets. With startling archival evidence, Oreskes and Conway document campaigns to rewrite textbooks, combat unions, and defend child labor. They detail the ploys that turned hardline economists Friedrich von Hayek and Milton Friedman into household names; recount the libertarian roots of the Little House on the Prairie books; and tune into the General Electric-sponsored TV show that beamed free-market doctrine to millions and launched Ronald Reagan's political career. By the 1970s, this propaganda was succeeding. Free market ideology would define the next half-century across Republican and Democratic administrations, giving us a housing crisis, the opioid scourge, climate destruction, and a baleful response to the Covid-19 pandemic. Only by understanding this history can we imagine a future where markets will serve, not stifle, democracy.

In light of the periodic malfunctions in important sectors of the finan cial services industry in recent years, such as commercial banking, thrift institutions, and the securities market, numerous proposals have been developed for restructuring the financial system to improve both its safety and efficiency. Among the groups analyzing the performance of the financial system and recommending changes where necessary, has been the Shadow Financial Regulatory Committee. This Committee, which is described in greater detail in Chapter 1, consists of 12 independent banking experts from the academic and practitioner worlds that meet quarterly to analyze current developments in the financial services indus try and to make recommendations for improvements that would be in the public interest. The purpose of the Committee, its members, and a listing of policy statements are included in the Appendix. All but one of the chapters in this volume represent essays by indi vidual members of the Committee on issues discussed by the Committee at recent meetings and that, for the most part, resulted in policy state ments. They basically discuss the reasons for the policy statement adopted and place the issue in perspective. Where appropriate, the rele vant section of the respective policy statement is presented at the begin ning of each chapter. Each essay, however, reflects only the views of the individual author and not necessarily those of other members of the Committee or of the Committee as a whole.