Touting the virtues of the free market is all fine and good, but I find it interesting that such an intelligent analyst as Roger Kimball would miss, or at least not decry, the real reason free market ideas have fallen into disrepute. That is, 99% of people who advocate a free market do so up to the point that their profit turns to loss, at which point they clamour for bailouts, use the courts to crush upstart competitors, etc. Let’s put it this way; there’s no such thing as a laissez-faire capitalist in a foxhole.