Filippo Gaddo, Managing Director at A&M and SPE Councillor, interviewed Samuel Gregg, the Friedrich Hayek Chair in Economics and Economic History at the American Institute for Economic Research and author most recently of The Next American Economy: Nation, State and Markets in an Uncertain World (2022).

In the interview, Filippo and Sam discuss the principles for a flourishing and prosperous economy outlined in Sam's book 'The Next American Economy' - free markets, free trade and entrepreneurship - and how they apply to the current environment.

In particular Sam outlines why over the past 10-15 years there has been a turn away from such principles towards what he calls 'State Capitalism', where government intervention, industrial policies and barriers to trade have become mainstream policies. There are many explanations, including the fallacy of short-termism [focusing too much on the 'here and now', leading to excessive government spending for example], the short-sightedness in applying cost benefit analysis - focusing on local, narrow benefits but missing widely spread costs, and the misinterpretation of economic phenomena - such as attributing financial crises, recessions and job losses to failure of capitalism or the free market.

Also very importantly there seems to exist a crisis of confidence in the morality of the democratic capitalism - partially generated by the consequences of the 2008 financial crisis. Sam explains why that is a false narrative but also why it has taken hold in the general public - in particular how the connection between the free market, free trade principles and the 'establishment' has ended up damaging the reputation of those principles in the recent turn towards economic populism.

For economists there are lots of lessons to learn about how to better communicate the effectiveness of the policies they advise. In the final part of the conversation Filippo and Sam explore some potential policies, actions and options to recover some of the belief in markets and thus creating an environment that is conducive to growth and prosperity, and how they contrast with the actions and words of the various policymakers of today.  It is a realistic, positive and incredibly insightful conversation - and one appropriate for the current economic circumstances. 

Samuel Gregg is the Friedrich Hayek Chair in Economics and Economic History at the American Institute for Economic Research. He has a D.Phil. in moral philosophy and political economy from Oxford University, and an M.A. in political philosophy from the University of Melbourne. He has written and spoken extensively on questions of political economy, economic history, monetary theory and policy, and natural law theory. He is the author of seventeen books, including On Ordered Liberty (2003), The Commercial Society (2007), Wilhelm Röpke’s Political Economy (2010); Becoming Europe (2013); Reason, Faith, and the Struggle for Western Civilization (2019); The Essential Natural Law (2021); and The Next American Economy: Nation, State and Markets in an Uncertain World (2022). 

In 2001, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, and a Member of the Mont Pèlerin Society in 2004. In 2008, he was elected a Member of the Philadelphia Society, and a Member of the Royal Economic Society. He served as President of the Philadelphia Society from 2019-2021. He was made a Distinguished Fellow of the Philadelphia Society in 2023. He is also a Contributor to Law and Liberty and an Affiliate Scholar at the Acton Institute. He is the General Editor of Lexington Books’ Studies in Ethics and Economics Series. 

In 2024, he was awarded the prestigious Bradley Prize by The Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation. This Prize honors scholars and practitioners whose accomplishments reflect the Bradley Foundation’s mission to restore, strengthen, and protect the principles and institutions of American exceptionalism.