Busting Free Market Myths With Jacob Soll – A Joint Episode of "Grüezi Amerika", "Ohne Senf" and "SQUARE Talks" - Grüezi Amerika. Views from the Sister Republic

"The Free Market" has been a dominant concept in 20th century
political and economic discourse – so dominant in fact that it
has remained unquestioned. It has become both ambition and
panacea as is reflected by the conditionalities of development
banks. Let the "invisible Hand" reign supreme and all shall be
well, seems to be the mantra. Yet in the 21st century, even the
US right, once stalwart defenders of libertarianism, have fallen
out of love with "the free market." We dissect the history of the
"free market" with historian Jacob Soll whose recent book "The
Free Market: History of an Idea" busts many a myth.


Jacob Soll is Professor of Philosophy, History, and Accounting at
the University of Southern California. He received a BA from the
University of Iowa, a D.E.A. from the École des Hautes Études en
Sciences Sociales in Paris, France, and a Ph.D. from Magdalene
College, Cambridge University. He has taught at Cambridge
University, Princeton University, Rutgers University, and the
European University Institute in Fiesole, Italy, and USC. Soll
has been awarded numerous prestigious prizes including the
Jacques Barzun Prize from the American Philosophical Society, two
NEH Fellowships, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and, in 2011, the
$500,000 MacArthur "Genius Prize" Fellowship. His book "The
Reckoning: Financial Accountability and the Rise and Fall of
Nations" (2014) has been a global best seller.