Chapter IX: Reversing the Decline of European Nation-States
Chapter IX: Reversing the Decline of European Nation-States A successful nationalist movement cannot be guided by free-market orthodoxy. For over two centuries the principles of free market economics played a crucial role in Western countries. Theoretically, laissez-faire capitalism was supposed to protect private economic actors from governmental intervention, thereby ensuring free competition. Unfortunately, this hands-off stance worked only for a time. It eventually opened the door to an unprecedented concentration of economic power in the hands of a restricted circle of oligarchs. This conglomerated economic power in private hands spilled over into and eventually swallowed up the political power of European nation-states and the US. The financial oligarchs – who manipulate their trillions in the financial centers of Wall Street, London, Frankfurt, Paris, Hong Kong and Singapore – staunchly uphold freedom, i.e., their freedom to operate without government “interference” in economic matters. It would appear that in defending the idea of the free market, the financial elites are look ing out for our interests. For in their narrative, free markets are often associated with the principle of individual liberty, without which, of course, there would be no democracy. But appearances can be deceptive. The oligarchs, their paid media and the professional economists are not at all fighting some kind of a rearguard action against the 179
