Allan H. Meltzer. Why Capitalism? USA: Oxford University Press. 2012. 145 pages. US $ 21.95. Hardbound.

Abstract

Why Capitalism? is written in response to the popular belief of “end of capitalism” that emerged in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis. In this book, the author criticises the anti-capitalism claim advocated by numerous writers who welcomed regulated markets and essential government intervention at the time of recession to fix the problems, which free markets cannot resolve by itself. While praising capitalism, the author argues that the success of capitalist system was inevitable over the last half decade in most of the countries. He believes that democracy along with capitalism is the best system since people, by their voting rights, choose their own tax rates and way of redistribution of wealth. Furthermore, according to him it is the only system, which faced many challenges, but not only survived but came out stronger and dominated the world. Theoretically, the author’s arguments, in this book are very attractive but in practice give rise to several questions.