Business vs. Markets

Arnold Kling explains that support for markets and business are not the same thing:

Consider the following matrix:

	Pro-Business	Anti-Business
Pro-Market
Anti-Market

The point is that there really are four separate categories, not just the two pro’s and the two anti’s. On health care reform and bank regulation, I would argue that the Obama Administration is trying to be pro-business and anti-market. The wonks do not trust markets at all, and they think they can do a better job of regulating them. But they are more than willing to keep big business interests happy.

An important point is that well-established businesses do not trust markets either. The last thing that a well-established business wants to see is a free market. What it wants is a regulated market that keeps competitors at bay. The people who benefit from free markets are small entrepreneurs and, above all, consumers.

My sense is that until the 1980s conservatives (as opposed to Republicans) tended to lean toward the pro-market/anti-business side. During the Reagan years, though, the pro-market and pro-business sides created a fusionism that paralleled the alliance of libertarians and conservatives. This went largely unchanged for decades until a rift began to appear during the last Presidential primary (Huckabee leaned pro-market, while Romney skewed pro-business, and McCain seemed not to know the difference) until the financial crisis and the bailouts began.

I suspect we’ll soon see a new realignment with conservatives (again, as opposed to Republicans) moving back to the pro-market and anti-business while the Democrats (as opposed to populist liberals) become more comfortable admitting they are pro-business and anti-market.