John Tamny of RealClearMarkets
In trying to explain why capitalism in the U.S. thrived in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Austrian economist Joseph Schumpeter broke it down to the flow of talent. According to him, “the scheme of values that arose from the national task of developing the economic possibilities of [the U.S.] drew nearly all the brains into business and impressed the businessman’s attitudes upon the soul of the nation.”
And as Schumpeter’s biographer Thomas McCraw confirmed, “Between 1865 and 1901, forgettable men such as Rutherford B. Hayes and Chester A. Arthur occupied the White House, while the entrepreneurial leadership of Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, and many others left its mark on history.” Of course, by the late 1930s and early 1940s, some of the best American minds had been drawn to Washington, and that was one reason Schumpeter was less than optimistic about capitalism’s future.
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