A Reply to William Becker

Extract

I am of course pleased that Professor Becker finds my view of the character and sources of early twentieth-century American economic policy to be “well supported” by the evidence. I value the fact that he does not regard as heresy my failing to call the American economy “corporate” and regulation “corporatist” or “corporate liberal.” And I appreciate his recognition that my book deals with more than that old standby big-business-and-antitrust: that it talks about the impact of new technology (radio, the movies, airplanes, telephones, electricity, motor vehicles) on regulatory policy; about the regulation of farm prices and natural resources; about urban housing and zoning; about labor and taxation and tariffs and banking and investment—in short, about a complex and rapidly changing regulatory order, and not just government and big business.