As a global fi nancial crisis approached its apex in the fall of 2008, commentators on both sides of the po liti cal aisle declared that a long era in American po liti cal history was drawing to a close. According to their narrative, the rise of deregulation in the 1970s and the subsequent election of Ronald Reagan had ushered in nearly thirty years during which the primacy of free markets was largely assumed. Advocates of government intervention had adopted a defensive rhetoric and approached economic legislation in a spirit of accession and compromise, while the invocation of freemarket doctrines among those in positions of po liti cal power had become ever more strident and selfassured. Now— in the wake of income stagnation, rising in e qual ity, an unpre ce dentedly unpopu lar president, conspicuous market imperfections, and an economic collapse widely attributed to failures of regulation— a tectonic shift had begun.

Angus Burgin, The Great Persuasion, loc. 538