neoliberalism

The epithet ‘neoliberal’ is often a grenade lobbed with the pin attached, because this explosive term is rarely understood by those hurling it

– Half-Earth Socialism

Departing from their eighteenth-century tradition, the neoliberals recognized that markets were hardly natural but rather needed nurturing and protection by a strong state. Markets deserved such care because they could concentrate knowledge diffused throughout society into the metric of price. The conference’s impresario, Friedrich Hayek, saw the price system as a mechanism not merely for exchanging goods but also ‘for communicating information’. Markets allowed people to act rationally as individuals without full knowledge of why prices change, which meant that society’s ‘optimal ignorance’ was surprisingly high

Half-Earth Socialism

Failed business man running country, dismantling state and making money from it