Review: The Triumph of Economic Freedom
Forgetting the virtues of free enterprise will leave us all poorer.
Phil Gramm and Donald J. Boudreaux, The Triumph of Economic Freedom: Debunking the Seven Great Myths of American Capitalism
A quote by Noah Rothman of National Review keeps recurring to me: “All this confusion is unnecessary. It is a product of willful disregard of the example set by our forebears.” America, he observed, is suffering a “great unlearning” on many fundamental matters.
Certainly, the country got a stern reminder of the facts about free market economics when President Donald J. Trump chose to impose tariffs a few weeks back. The stock market tanked, and American companies reliant on foreign markets began laying off workers and pulling back on investments. The country may experience a recession (aka a significant drop in economic activity).
Trump’s tariffs and economic nationalist policy program is not idiosyncratic. A small cottage industry of economic nationalist writers has mushroomed and is peddling seductive claims about American prosperity. A distressing number of conservatives and other Americans imagine that protectionist actions and aggressive government direction will produce a better economy.
Each and everyone of them would benefit from reading The Triumph of Economic Freedom: Debunking the Seven Great Myths of American Capitalism (Rowman and Littlefield, 2025) by Phil Gramm and Donald J. Boudreaux. Despite being about economics, this is not a “dismal science” textbook. Rather, Gramm (a former senator) and Boudreaux (a university economist) use plain English to knock down some of the myths being peddled to justify a turn away from capitalism.
Gramm and Boudreaux tackle seven big topics: the Industrial Revolution, Progressive Era economic regulation, the Great Depression, the effect of free trade on manufacturing, the Great Recession (2007-2009), and the relationship between capitalism and poverty. Pace the economic nationalists, no capitalism was not the bad guy in each of these stories. In fact, they contend, excessive government intervention often exacerbates economic challenges.
Not every reader will find every chapter persuasive. Yet, they will find plenty of facts that will help rethink their assumptions. How many of us know, for example, that as of October 2024 America’s industrial output production capacity “was at an all-time high and 11 percent greater than when China joined the WTO”? So, no, we have not become not a gig and fast-food economy.
On the whole, The Triumph of Economic Freedom is a welcome reminder to a nation suffering elected officials who have forgotten Economics 101 and 150 years of growing prosperity. Free markets are a great blessing to our nation and the world. Are they perfect? No, some regulation is absolutely necessary to protect consumers, workers, and the environment. But make no mistake: free enterprise is a golden goose and we would be fools to let politicians kill it.
Kevin R. Kosar (@kevinrkosar) is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.