ABSTRACT
Neoliberal economics has embraced a metaphor that compares the movement of money through a market to that of free-flowing liquids in a confined space. For both money and liquids, if left unimpeded, the flows will stabilize at some optimal point of balance. This chapter explores the origins of free-flowing-markets metaphor, how categorical and associative bolstering helped in spreading it through expert and public discourses and how common forms of expression contributed to it becoming entrenched as an unquestioned given. The surprisingly rapid growth and dissemination of this monster led to a dominance that provided little space for alternative perspectives. The chapter concludes with examples of how the dominance of this metaphor has led to harm in the form of escalating inequalities, deteriorations in physical, mental and social wellbeing and failures in adapting to economic crises.
