Fiscal conservatives, including most Republicans, love to extol the virtues of the free market. They’re referring, of course, to the autonomous, self-regulating mechanism of perfect competition lauded in Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations , published in 1776, the same year the American Declaration of Independence was published. I appreciate its virtues as well. But they’re not talking about the same market that Adam Smith wrote about. Their version of the free market is a cover story for a dark secret hiding in plain sight.

Proponents of free market economics say that resources are efficiently allocated, competition is encouraged, there's innovation and economic growth, and that consumers are provided with many alternatives because the government doesn't restrict markets, allowing businesse

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