ProMarket: Why Martin Wolf Changed His Mind on Milton Friedman

ProMarket, the sister publication of Capitalisn't at Chicago Booth's Stigler Center, has been hosting thought leadership on political economy, competition, antitrust, special interests, and more since 2016. To follow up on the discussions on the podcast, we are launching an occasional additional segment where listeners can further explore the show's conversations in ProMarket. For our first segment, Bethany and Luigi talk to Brooke Fox, Managing Editor at ProMarket. They discuss Martin Wolf's 2020 article in ProMarket, where he draws a direct line between economist Milton Friedman's advocacy for unfettered markets and the erosion of democratic institutions. In it, he calls for rethinking the prevailing economic ideology to safeguard democratic values -- an idea he further develops in his recent book, “The Crisis of Democratic Capitalism.” Luigi, Bethany, and Brooke also discuss the intersection of Friedman's ideas with George Stigler's, and the role of corporations in society today.