Free-market fundamentalists hope that the incoming tide of government interventionism will rapidly ebb, leaving markets once again to enjoy the freedoms of light tough regulation. That is wishful thinking. Sure, no government in its right mind sees the crisis as a way to return to an out-of-date form of planned socialism run by unaccountable bureaucrats. But it is foolish to believe – after three decades in which advocates of unbridled laisser faire have ruled the ideological roost and amid the worst financial crisis in two generations – that prevailing intellectual fashions will not now swing far the other way.
自由市場原教旨主義者希望，即將涌現的政府干預大潮能迅速退卻，讓市場再次享受輕度監管的自由。這是種一廂情愿的想法。的確，沒有一個思維正常的政府會將此次危機視作一次機會，借此退回到不負責任的官僚所主導的老式社會主義計劃經濟。但如果認為當下流行的觀點不會偏離另一個方向很遠，那也將是愚蠢的，尤其是在自由放任思潮鼓吹者占據意識形態舞臺三十年之后，以及兩代人時間里最嚴重金融危機爆發之時。