ABSTRACT
For conservatives, the financial crisis that began in the summer of 2007 has posed a major problem. We had grown rather accustomed to singing the praises of free financial markets and the institutions that flourish in them. The crisis threatens to discredit the very idea of capitalism – even to vindicate the old Marxists who, we had assumed, were about to fade into extinction. It is therefore vital that we understand the true character of the crisis, and do not fall into the trap of accepting that it was the result of deregulation and market failure.
