Per molti, ancora oggi, non è un esponente del laissez faire. Sbagliato
The worst passages in Mr. Norman’s very good book, that is, come from accepting the assumption that markets are highly imperfect yet easily corrected—and that government, implicitly assumed to be capable of such delicate corrections, should step in. Such a plan runs against Mr. Norman’s own conservatism and Smith’s evolutionary thinking, which would favor spontaneous developments, not “policies” laid on in all directions by self-described experts.
“Far from always being choked back by rules and law, markets vividly illustrate how personal freedom and prosperity can be enlarged by them,” Mr. Norman claims. “Far from being intrinsically opposed, states and markets rely and benefit from each other.” Tell that to the farmer in Iowa facing retaliation from China and other countries for American tariffs. Tell it to the west-sider in Chicago excluded from employment in a new factory or a new grocery store by governmental restrictions that would have made Smith’s blood boil.
McCloskey on Norman, by Alberto Mingardi https://www.econlib.org/mccloskey-on-norman/
