Some of the early neoliberal traditions emphasizing competition have been turned upside down by a specific American current of neoliberal thought. In Chapter 6, Rob Van Horn contrasts German ordoliberal positions to U.S. positions to explain in great detail how the specific Chicago School variety of neoliberalism was developed as a clear departure from traditional liberal concerns about political and economic concentration of power. The Chicago Anti-Trust Project (1953–1957) led by Aaron Director effectively amounted to an apologetic “corporations can do no wrong” perspective, in stark contrast to the classical and the German variety of neoliberalism. … Ordoliberal studies stressing grave problems related to state ownership of railroads in Germany, in comparison with Chicago School research pointing to serious trouble with state regulation of private railroads, served to support one of the central and tenuous conclusions of Chicago School neoliberalism: unregulated private monopoly was a relatively benign phenomenon; the real danger instead emanated from the state and the courts’ lack of economic understanding.

Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, loc. 158