Worshipping at the Cold Altars of Neoliberalism

The London Economist keeps the faith and says the prayers, even though no one and no thing is listening; a draft for my April Project Syndicate column...

Worshipping at the cold altars of neoliberalism; by Stable Diffusion via NightCafe

I see that the neoliberal faith is still very much excessively strong in the pages of the London Economist:

The more that Americans think their economy is a problem in need of fixing, the more likely their politicians are to mess up the next 30 years. Although America’s openness brought prosperity for its firms and its consumers, both Mr Trump and Mr Biden have turned to protectionism and the politics of immigration have become toxic. Subsidies could boost investment in deprived areas in the short term, but risk dulling market incentives to innovate. In the long run they will also entrench wasteful and distorting lobbying https://www.economist.com/business/2023/04/10/americas-800bn-climate-splurge-is-feeding-a-new-lobbying-ecosystem. The rise of China and the need to fight climate change both confront America with fresh challenges. All the more reason, then, to remember what has powered its long and successful run… https://www.economist.com/leaders/2023/04/13/the-lessons-from-americas-astonishing-economic-record

There is a sense in which this final paragraph is absolutely perfect. 

It begins with a demand that Americans shut up and sit down—accept the dogma that the market giveth; the market taketh away: blessed be the name of the market. A flat-out prohibition against Americans’ daring to think that their economy has any weaknesses that should be addressed other than an over-mighty and over-interventionist government. It ends with a claim that America’s special prosperity in the past is due to its worship of the Mammon of Unrighteousness that is laissez-fair—a claim that took away the breath of at least this student of America’s long developmental-state history.