Chicago economists knew markets require a moral, political and legal framework to function.

Evidence

On closer examination, however, even at their most technical, the Chicago economists were deeply aware of the non-economic prerequisites for their preferred market order. If romanticism and dema-goguery were the greatest barriers to ‘good economics’, a working market order required market subjects responsible for their own fates. The Chicago economists were also aware that the market did not create its own virtues. Röpke had argued that invocations of an invisible hand obscured the fact that the ‘market economy needs a firm moral, political and institutional framework’, including ‘well weighed laws appropriate to the economic system’. For Friedman, achieving such a market-compatible framework was the junta’s political miracle. — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market, 333

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the broader literature on Polanyi’s embeddedness thesis and the market’s reliance on non-market institutions; relevant to the reader’s work on market ethics. — connects to: Hayek held that free markets require a moral culture of personal responsibility to survive — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market: Human Rights…, 23; Moral reform requires economic reform as its concrete form; Neoliberals saw that competitive markets require an actively constructed legal and moral framework. — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market: Human Rights…, 45
• SEED: Potential essay angle: the right’s own admission that free markets depend on authoritarian enforcement of moral-political frameworks — the ‘miracle’ as politicide.

Broader Connections

• Hayek held that free markets require a moral culture of personal responsibility to survive #exemplifies (0.85) — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market, 23
• Moral reform requires economic reform as its concrete form #expands (0.72)