The Financial Times opinion article declares Return of the State.

You sure couldn't tell it by me. Hey, they call Populists vulgar in this article!

It's an interesting piece though, pointing out that with the financial sector crisis the free market has failed and how other emerging economies, the government is very much at the helm.

Here's the first couple of paragraphs as a teaser, click on the above link to read the whole article.

For the best part of three decades, policymakers in the developed world followed Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher in seeking to roll back the frontiers of the state. The triple mantra of privatisation, liberalisation and deregulation held sway.

Yet the problems that began in credit markets a year ago now cast a cloud over the strong market orientation of western policy. After the collapse of banks such as Bear Stearns in the US and Northern Rock in the UK, and against the current background of mounting speculation about the viability of mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the Anglo-American approach to capitalism appears badly flawed.

So is a more intrusive state about to stage a comeback at the free market’s expense, emulating the governmental response to the economic crisis of the 1930s?