Corbynomics: A path to penury

The expansion of capitalism and free markets in recent decades has led to incredible economic and social progress; the fastest fall in extreme poverty in human history, rising life expectancy and plummeting levels of global hunger. Jeremy Corbyn’s anti-capitalist economic programme seems simply to ignore that history of success. The premise of Corbynomics is therefore that free market capitalism has failed in the UK with sectors ranging from energy to housing showing that markets cannot function to the benefit of society. This is deeply misguided.

As John Maynard Keynes once said, this is ‘an extraordinary example of how, starting with a mistake, a remorseless logician can end up in bedlam’. Of course many markets are not functioning as we would like them too. More often than not the fault rests with poorly targeted and excessive state intervention, and anti-competitive corporatism. Many markets need to be reformed but increasing state power, control and ownership is the antithesis of the reforms that are needed.