By: Rainer Zitelmann

Dr Rainer Zitelmann is a German historian, sociologist and author. His latest book is "The Origins of Poverty and Wealth" https://origins-poverty-wealth.com/

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Adam Smith 300: Was the king of free market economics left-wing?

June 16, 2023

Was Adam Smith left wing? Adam Smith is generally regarded as the father of modern capitalism. His works are cited by Milton Friedman, Friedrich August von Hayek and many other liberal and libertarian thinkers. Adam Smith, Friedman explained, “who but for the accident of having been born in the wrong century … undoubtedly have been [...]
Adam Smith 300: Nine global economists have their say on the pioneer’s importance

June 16, 2023

Friday, 16 June 2023 marks the 300th anniversary of Adam Smith’s baptism. The German economic historian and sociologist Rainer Zitelmann, author of the book In Defence of Capitalism , asked free-market economists from nine countries to assess the historical significance of Adam Smith. Professor Stefan Kooths, Kiel Institute for the World Economy, IfW, Germany “What [...]
In Defence of Capitalism: Consumption is good for you and me

April 19, 2023

In his 2015 encyclical “Laudato si”, a blazing indictment of capitalism, Pope Francis proclaimed: “Since the market tends to promote extreme consumerism in an effort to sell its products, people can easily get caught up in a whirlwind of needless buying and spending. Compulsive consumerism is one example of how the techno-economic paradigm affects individuals”. [...]
In defence of capitalism: Why greed can be good for consumers

April 12, 2023

In the seventh of an eight-part series, sociologist and author Dr Rainer Zitelmann pulls apart the arguments against free markets. This week, he takes on the idea that capitalism uniquely creates greed and selfishness The British economist Paul Collier has put together a series of proposals on how capitalism should be ‘reformed.’ He criticizes the [...]
In Defence of Capitalism: Why Nokia and MySpace lost their monopolies

April 6, 2023

Each week, Dr Rainer Zitelmann mythbusts the arguments against capitalism. This week, it’s the idea that capitalism creates monopolies – but looking at Nokia and MySpace amongst others suggests otherwise In an international survey on popular perceptions of capitalism, which I commissioned for the book In Defence of Capitalism, one of the main criticisms levelled [...]
In defence of capitalism: Does money corrupt politics?

March 29, 2023

In the fifth of an eight-part series, Dr Rainer Zitelmann – the author of the new book In Defence of Capitalism – argues that free markets, capitalism and money make for fairer elections and freer democracies, not the other way round The American intellectual Noam Chomsky, one of the most popular critics of capitalism, writes [...]
Is this crisis capitalism’s fault? No. And neither was the last one

March 23, 2023

In the fourth of an eight part series, Dr Rainer Zitelmann mythbusts the arguments against free markets. Today, it’s “Capitalism repeatedly leads to new economic and financial crises” For as long as there have been anti-capitalists, they have been anticipating the great crisis that would bring about the final, irreversible collapse of capitalism. Karl Marx [...]
What do Brits think of capitalism? Not much, it seems

March 18, 2023

One of the most surprising findings of an international survey conducted on attitudes towards capitalism for the book In Defence of Capitalism is that the British – in the motherland of capitalism – are far more critical of capitalism than might be expected. Only in 12 countries are attitudes towards capitalism more negative than in [...]
In defence of capitalism: How free markets can help us go green

March 15, 2023

For more than 20 years, researchers at Yale University have been publishing the Environmental Performance Index (EPI), which ranks countries according to their environmental health and ecosystem vitality. A comparison can be made between the EPI and the Heritage Foundation’s Index of Economic Freedom, which has been measuring economic freedom around the globe since 1995. [...]
UK must turn around the ship of state towards economic freedom

March 12, 2023

Dr Rainer Zitelmann is a historian and sociologist. In this guest essay, he argues the UK is slipping down the list of free countries in a new global index Last year, the UK received its worst rating in the Index of Economic Freedom since 1995, when the index was first calculated. This year’s rating is [...]

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By: Rainer Zitelmann

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