The Rise of Far-Right Economic Orthodoxy

Robert Bork did more than any individual in the twentieth century to embed the libertarian free-market principles of Ayn Rand and Milton Friedman into the heart of the American economic and judicial system....Bork came to the University of Chicago in the late 1940s as a true believer in Roosevelt's New Deal politics....But as he began to get attracted to the intersection of economics and law, the conservative professors who dominated the Chicago faculty discouraged any belief that government could or should play a role in regulating business.    

                                                 -- From Move Fast and Break Things by Jonathan Taplin, pp. 109, 111

The story of how far-right economic theory became mainstream in America is rather involved, though its beginning and course are quite traceable.  The main thing is that this orthodoxy -- which says the government has no place regulating big business -- is prevalent today, and to a large extent has simply taken over public policy as it is enunciated by politicians, academics, and pundits.

There are exceptions, of course.  After all, it is pretty cleat that the Sherman Anti-Trust act was and is not in favor of trusts (combines of corporations, including financial outfits).  Yet, as author Taplin points out, we have in good measure returned to domination of only a few firms, particularly in the Internet field.

What Taplin attempts to do -- and this is ever so useful -- is show how the Internet monopolies grew out of the capitalist economic system.  And he further shows how this has been so very hurtful to true variety, diversity, and freedom. 
                              

Robert Bork