I will admit it. The op-ed by Matthew Hennessey that I quote below, annoyed me and hurt my feelings. I set it aside, thinking I should respond, but not sure of the best response. Some of us, me for instance, have spent a lot of our lives trying to be worthy champions of innovative dynamism (“capitalism” if you prefer). If we have failed to be as effective as Milton Friedman, it is not from lack of trying.
See, for example, Openness to Creative Destruction: Sustaining Innovative Dynamism. I kept waiting and hoping for The Wall Street Journal to review my book. They never did.
Maybe the problem is partly that journalists such as Matthew Hennessey are not sufficiently alert to those academics who defend innovative dynamism; journalists who also are not sufficiently energetic at informing the broader public of our work?
We need new Henry Hazlitts.
(p. A13) Let Zohran Mamdani’s victory in last week’s Democratic mayoral primary in New York serve as your periodic reminder that capitalism is in dire need of able defenders. Socialism has more cheerleaders than it deserves, considering its record of consistent failure. Markets need champions too. This is always true, especially now.
. . .
Who is making a sustained and coherent public case for American-style capitalism? The field is wide open. We need new Milton Friedmans and Thomas Sowells.
For the full commentary see:
(Note: ellipsis added.)
(Note: the online version of the commentary has the date June 30, 2025, and has the same title as the print version.)
My defense of capitalism (what I think should be called “innovative dynamism”) is:
Diamond, Arthur M., Jr. Openness to Creative Destruction: Sustaining Innovative Dynamism. New York: Oxford University Press, 2019.