Ira Stoll on Why Capitalism Is Here to Stay

At the height of the financial crisis in late 2008 and early 2009, a wave of articles declared the end of capitalism. A half-dozen reporters writing about the issue called Allan Meltzer, who since 1957 has been teaching about capitalism at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. Five of the calls he answered. The sixth was from a reporter of Die Zeit, the German weekly, who, as Professor Meltzer recalls it, asked, "Professor, what do you think about the end of capitalism?" Professor Meltzer replied that that was the stupidest question he'd been asked in 50 years. Meltzer's new book, Why Capitalism?, reviewed by Ira Stoll, explains why capitalism is actually here to stay.