Russian President Boris Yeltsin ordered the liberalization of foreign trade, prices, and currency, launching the radical ‘shock therapy’ economic transformation designed by Deputy Prime Minister Yegor Gaidar, a 35-year-old liberal economist advised by Harvard’s Jeffrey Sachs. The …
Boris YeltsinYegor GaidarJeffrey SachsHarvard UniversityInternational Monetary Fund+1 moreshock-therapyrussiashock-doctrineneoliberalismprivatization+5 more
Reagan’s Antitrust Chief William Baxter released the Department of Justice’s 1982 Merger Guidelines, fundamentally transforming how the federal government evaluated mergers and effectively repealing Congressional antitrust statutes through administrative policy. The FTC simultaneously …
William F. BaxterDepartment of JusticeFederal Trade CommissionRonald Reaganantitrustregulatory-capturechicago-schoolmerger-guidelinescorporate-power+1 more
President Ronald Reagan appointed Robert Bork to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on February 9, 1982, elevating the author of “The Antitrust Paradox” to the federal bench widely considered the nation’s second-most important court. Bork’s …
Robert BorkRonald ReaganDC Circuit Court of AppealsFederalist SocietyDepartment of Justice Antitrust Division+1 morejudicial-captureantitrust-abandonmentchicago-schoolfederalist-societyconservative-movement+3 more
President Ronald Reagan appointed Stanford Law Professor William F. Baxter as Assistant Attorney General for the Antitrust Division, marking the formal beginning of antitrust enforcement collapse and the operationalization of Chicago School ideology throughout the federal government. Baxter, a …
Ronald ReaganWilliam F. BaxterDepartment of JusticeStanford Law SchoolSenator Howard Metzenbaumantitrustregulatory-capturechicago-schoolreagan-administrationenforcement-collapse+1 more
Ronald Reagan’s inauguration marked the beginning of the most consequential transformation in American antitrust policy since the Sherman Act of 1890—an eight-year systematic dismantlement of competition enforcement that would enable four decades of corporate consolidation and monopolization. …
Ronald ReaganWilliam F. BaxterDouglas GinsburgRobert BorkFrank Easterbrook+3 moreantitrustregulatory-capturechicago-schoolreagan-administrationenforcement-collapse+2 more
The U.S. Supreme Court decides Continental Television, Inc. v. GTE Sylvania, Inc., marking the first significant victory for Chicago School antitrust theory at the Supreme Court and signaling the beginning of judicial embrace of corporate-friendly antitrust doctrine. The decision reflects decades of …
U.S. Supreme CourtAaron DirectorChicago School of Economicsantitrust-abandonmentchicago-schooljudicial-capturecorporate-poweraaron-director
Arthur Laffer, University of Chicago professor, sketches a curve on a napkin during dinner with Jude Wanniski (Wall Street Journal associate editor), Donald Rumsfeld, and Dick Cheney, creating the iconic diagram that will justify massive tax cuts for the wealthy and become the intellectual …
Arthur LafferJude WanniskiDonald RumsfeldDick Cheneysupply-side-economicslaffer-curvetax-policychicago-schooleconomic-ideology
The William Volker Fund closes after serving as the primary libertarian organization with significant funding throughout the 1940s-1950s, having played a key role in developing the modern libertarian movement by financing the Chicago School of economics, the Mont Pelerin Society, and free-market …
William Volker FundHarold LuhnowHoover InstitutionInstitute for Humane StudiesF.A. Harper+5 morevolker-fundchicago-schoollibertarian-fundingcorporate-philanthropyhoover-institution
Friedrich Hayek organizes the founding conference of the Mont Pelerin Society in Switzerland, establishing an international network of free-market economists and intellectuals that becomes the intellectual foundation for neoliberal economic policy worldwide. The William Volker Fund provides crucial …
Friedrich HayekMilton FriedmanLudwig von MisesWilliam Volker FundHarold Luhnow+3 moremont-pelerin-societyvolker-fundfree-market-ideologychicago-schoolcorporate-funding+2 more