Charles Fried, Reagan’s Solicitor General, makes the case for Elizabeth Warren (and for a recess appointment, no less).
Here is one more difference between the responsible libertarians in academe—whom I happily talk to, though normally disagree with—and the wingnut variety who prevail in politics. The latter want government to get out of businesses’ way, period. The former realize that markets only benefit society when force and fraud are prohibited—which means that government should get very much in businesses’ way when that’s what they’re prone to.
Yes, there is a difference between a few market and an unfettered market. The balancing act that often fails, though, is realizing when too much regulation in the name of eliminating force and fraud makes the markets fail as well.
Two points: does the “market activity” promote a social good, and from the view of the man in the street, is it fair? Companies that meet those two criteria have nothing to worry about except the competition from companies whose business plans includes a grifter’s fraud or a mafiosi’s extortion.
Charles Fried is not a responsible libertarian. He is a responsible conservative; a different beast. But he is responsible.