Despite later characterizations of Karl Polanyi and neoliberals as ideological and methodological opposites, the institutional focus of early neoliberals even suggested the embedding of the economy in a sense reminiscent of Polanyi. Of course, Karl Polanyi argued for different forms of embedding, and early neoliberals were clearly in favor of retaining land, labor, and capital as commodities (the root cause of capitalism’s crisis according to Polanyi), but they were also acutely aware that nation-states were here to stay and that national economies had to be embedded politically and socially to fit in with other national economies on a global economic playing field.

Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, loc. 403