New York —

Fire the economists. Sue the Fed chair. Meddle in private businesses. Consider suspending economic reports. Demand fealty. Take over police in the capital. Tell everyone it’s for their own good.

This is what the end of American free-market capitalism could look like. Over the past several days, President Donald Trump has taken steps — unprecedented in American history, but well established in China, Russia and other centrally managed economies — to break the institutions that define and sustain our economic reality.

It’s about to get very messy. Or rather, messier.

Here’s a sampling of just the past two days :

Trump, having fired the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics earlier this month because he didn’t like the weak summer jobs report, picked EJ Antoni — a MAGA l

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