Example Image
Civitas Outlook
Topic
Economic Dynamism
Published on
Jan 3, 2025
Contributors
Samuel Gregg
Richard M. Reinsch II

Saving Free Markets in America

Contributors
Samuel Gregg
Samuel Gregg
Samuel Gregg
Richard M. Reinsch II
Richard M. Reinsch II
Editor-in-Chief, Civitas Outlook
Richard M. Reinsch II
Summary
American markets are under siege by interventionists on both the left and the right.
Summary
American markets are under siege by interventionists on both the left and the right.

America is now in a moment of choosing. Our markets are under siege from interventionist proposals on both the left and right, coupled with impending fiscal, entitlement, and regulatory crises bequeathed by a legacy of such policies. They also face threats from identity politics as manifested in environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investing and the push for diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). Despite recent setbacks, these movements have set down deep roots in corporate America, academia, and government. Failure to confront these challenges on the level of political economy will turn America into a different kind of nation. The country will still exist, of course, but absent a dynamic capitalist economy, the republic of freedom and opportunity it has represented for two and a half centuries will be lost.

The problems plaguing free markets today come in different forms. There are the conventional afflictions of an overweening state, which include government overspending, excessive and arbitrary state interventionism, and out-of-control deficits and public debt. These issues curb American ambition and independence, imprisoning us in our failure to control our government as it spends money far beyond its revenues.

Other afflictions facing American markets are of a moral and cultural character; they weaken the entrepreneurial spirit upon which market capitalism relies. Entitlement spending, for example, has ballooned over the past four decades, particularly in the means-tested category. This raises the question: Have we effectively decided that the fundamental norm of standing on one's own two feet no longer applies to entire segments of the American citizenry? If so, then America will continue its slide into becoming just another European-style social democracy opting for managed decline.

Continue reading the full essay at National Affairs

10:13
1x
10:13
More articles

Relief for Trump in Sight — If Supreme Court Special Session Reins in Rogue Judges

Politics
Apr 25, 2025

The Sound of Five Thousand Banks Collapsing

Economic Dynamism
Apr 25, 2025
View all

Join the newsletter

Receive new publications, news, and updates from the Civitas Institute.

Sign up
More on

Economic Dynamism

Partisan Trust in the Federal Reserve

This paper examines partisanship in public perceptions of the Federal Reserve.

Carola Binder, Cody Couture, Abhiprerna Smit
Economic Dynamism
Apr 22, 2025
The American Dream Is Not a Coin Flip, and Wages Have Not Stagnated

This paper challenges the prevailing narrative that stagnant wages are causing the American dream to fade. It contrasts subjective public opinion with revised objective intergenerational mobility measures.

Scott Winship
Economic Dynamism
Mar 6, 2025
Political Economy and the Rise of Commercial Humanism

Western attitudes toward commerce have transformed from early moral condemnation to a modern appreciation that sees trade as socially beneficial.

Erik Matson
Economic Dynamism
Feb 28, 2025
Why Failure-to-Market Claims Are Preempted Under Federal Law

A California appellate court invented out of whole cloth a new and troubling theory of tort liability.

Richard Epstein, Benjamin Flowers
Economic Dynamism
Feb 5, 2025
No items found.
A Bad Business on the Bayou

Chevron finds itself the victim of a political alliance between the tort bar and Louisiana Republicans.

Michael Toth
Economic Dynamism
Apr 1, 2025
Congress Must Shield US Companies from European Regulations

Congress should exercise its constitutional powers over foreign commerce to guard American companies against overregulation by the European Union.

Michael Toth
Economic Dynamism
Mar 27, 2025
ESG Would Rain on Spring Break

Americans have access to abundant, reliable energy, unlike Europeans under strict climate mandates.

Michael Toth
Economic Dynamism
Mar 10, 2025
These Mayors Understand How to Run a City

Armed with common sense policies, three urban leaders are fighting a patient battle against chaos.

Joel Kotkin
Economic Dynamism
Jan 24, 2025

Dignity and Dynamism: The Future of Conservative Technology Policy

Economic Dynamism
Mar 5, 2025
1:05

Edward Glaeser on Dynamism and Stagnation

Economic Dynamism
May 8, 2024
1:05

Dynamism & Its Enemies: 2024 Austin Symposium Recap

Economic Dynamism
May 8, 2024
1:05

Nobel Laureate Edmund Phelps on What Makes Nations Prosper

Economic Dynamism
May 8, 2024
1:05

Deirdre McCloskey on Where Prosperity Comes From

Economic Dynamism
May 8, 2024
1:05
No items found.
No items found.
The Sound of Five Thousand Banks Collapsing

With the passage of the Federal Reserve Act, many hoped that the new Federal Reserve Banks would make future financial crises impossible.

Alex J. Pollock
Economic Dynamism
Apr 25, 2025
Canada Needs a Pro-Growth Economic Strategy More Than Ever

Canada has stopped growing over the past decade, with per capita growth rates at the bottom of all OECD countries and per capita GDP levels almost unchanged since the mid-2010s.

Jonathan Hartley
Economic Dynamism
Apr 24, 2025
Why the AI Revolution Will Require Massive Energy Resources

Overall energy demand will rise because of AI, a textbook example of the Jevons Paradox, where efficiency gains lower costs but stimulate greater total consumption.

Lynne Kiesling, Rachel Lomasky
Economic Dynamism
Apr 23, 2025
Improving Commerce and Security in the Americas: A Civitas Outlook Symposium

What possible ways forward might bring peace, commerce, and flourishing?‍

Richard M. Reinsch II
Economic Dynamism
Apr 22, 2025
No items found.