But what to the politicians are fixed limits of practicability imposed by public opinion must not be similar limits to us. Public opinion on these matters is the work of men like ourselves . . . who have created the political climate in which the politicians of our time must move. . . . I am sure that the power of vested interests is vastly exaggerated compared with the gradual encroachment of ideas. (Quoted in Cockett 1995, 112) One might have added, how much more powerful are ideas consciously forged with the vested interest firmly kept in mind!

Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, loc. 2116