Friedman and the free market debate

A number of economists had looked closely at Friedman's arguments about the Great Depression, and found them wanting

Samuelson Friedman: The Battle Over the Free Market

Author: Nicholas Wapshott

Publisher: W W Norton
Price: $28.95 

Pages: 352

The New Deal and World War II transformed the US economy from a market free-for-all into a system that was still capitalist, but with many of the rough edges sanded off.

Profit-seeking business remained very much the norm — America never went in for significant government ownership of the means of production — but businesses and businesspeople were subject to many new constraints. Taxes were high, in some cases as high as 92 per cent; a third of the nation’s workers were union members; vigilant antitrust