Pre-1930s market advocates held no coherent shared doctrine

Evidence

In Chicago, Frank Knight, Jacob Viner, and Henry Simons developed a more moderate response to the events of the time. All three were quick to denounce the excesses of laissezfaire, and they varyingly embraced the prospect of public works projects, progressive taxation, social insurance, and vigorous antitrust policies. This brought them much closer to the profession’s mainstream than their colleagues in London, but made it diffi cult for others to associate them with any ascertainable doctrine or plan. Considered in conjunction, the economists in London and Chicago reveal a world of market advocacy that was very much in disarray. Some corners held fi rm to reactionary extremes that few were willing to follow; others much more readily made concessions but proved incapable of articulating a coherent oppositional worldview. — Angus Burgin, The Great Persuasion, 46

Considered in conjunction, the economists in London and Chicago reveal a world of market advocacy that was very much in disarray. Some corners held fi rm to reactionary extremes that few were willing to follow; others much more readily made concessions but proved incapable of articulating a coherent oppositional worldview. — Angus Burgin, The Great Persuasion, 46

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the later formation of the Mont Pèlerin Society — this is the pre-institutional fragmentation that MPS was founded to fix. — connects to: Pre-war American market advocates shunned public and popular audiences — Angus Burgin, The Great Persuasion: Reinventing Free…, 496; The early 1930s radicalized governments and isolated free-market economists. — Angus Burgin, The Great Persuasion: Reinventing Free…, 41; In the 1930s pro-business thinkers themselves rejected free markets and laissez-faire. — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 66 (+5 more)
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Angus Burgin, The Great Persuasion: Reinventing Free…, 46

Broader Connections

• In the 1930s pro-business thinkers themselves rejected free markets and laissez-faire. #contradicts (0.85) — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 66
• Early neoliberals explicitly distanced themselves from classical laissez-faire doctrine #corroborates (0.80) — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 117
• America in 1930 blended interventionist regulation with pro-market liberalism #exemplifies (0.75)
• Early free-market economists legitimized some government intervention; later ones did not #corroborates (0.72) — Angus Burgin, The Great Persuasion, 375
• Neoliberalism suppressed its own origins as a new doctrine by the late 1950s #corroborates (0.70) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 2136