ABSTRACT
The current preference for market mechanisms voiced in an increasing number of political circles, and seeking legitimation in a recent resurge of ‘neoclassical’ economic theories, can well be seen as a manifestation of a ‘second degree pessimism’. In the course of several decades, the trust in the wisdom of the market seemed on the wane. Even to those who retained their faith in the long-term ability of the market to get proportions right, it had become clear that short-term consequences of disequilibria might reach an intolerable, nay disastrous, scale. And yet this realisation did not necessarily require the abandonment of hope in the orderly and progressive economy, or the belief that the manifestations of its notorious afflictions can be kept from becoming excessive. The optimism of yesteryear could still be salvaged; a new haven, however, had to be found where it could safely be anchored.
