Defending the free market — “Yes, we can!”

Matt Welch’s Reason piece “Back to the Barricades —Free Markets are Under Attack Again” is a good read, if not an upbeat one. Here’s his conclusion:

Now that the historic 2008 bailout-the ramifications of which we’ll be sorting out for as long as, if not longer than, those of the equally rushed PATRIOT Act of 2001-has been signed into law, there has rarely been a more fitting time to engage in the basic argument that it is capitalism, not “emergency” intervention from Washington, that makes us freer, more prosperous, and more interesting. We hope we won’t be making these same arguments 40 years from now, but we’re fully prepared to do so if necessary.