The End of the Free Market: Who Wins the War Between States and Corporations?

by Ian Bremmer. Portfolio. 2010. 221 pages. $26.95.

The free-market economic system of Europe and North America could be undone by a new rival, called state capitalism, warns political consultant Ian Bremmer.

State capitalism is the economic system of China, Russia, Saudi Arabia, and many other politically authoritarian countries. In each, the government owns various companies and uses the markets to create wealth that it can direct as it deems best-suited for maximizing the state’s power and the leadership’s chances of survival.

Bremmer tracks the rise of state capitalism out of the ruins of the Soviet command economy and its present-day potential to unseat free markets and take control of the global financial system. The 2008 recession has emboldened state capitalism’s proponents, since they can claim a degree of stability that the U.S. economy lacks. Free markets might withstand the challenge, but only if they successfully reform themselves to guard against future meltdowns and crises.

Readers everywhere will find in The End of the Free Market a thought-provoking critique of the existing economic system and its future.