Beyond Friedman?

Vice President J.D. Vance has generated a wave of noise around economics in recent weeks. He advocates for Hamilton’s nationalist economics over libertarian champion Milton Friedman’s, and raises economic policies that were unthinkable on the right a decade or two ago. The rise of an alternative or “New Right” economic philosophy still confounds many DC elites, let alone those who can’t lounge around perusing the latest X thread or pontificating about the dismal science.

We know this economic battle kicked off as Trump came down the escalator, railing about the economic carnage of mass immigration, free trade, and unshared defense burdens. But what is this new paradigm rising — or reviving — among conservatives?

The school has been referred to both admiringly and critically as New Right economics, conservative economics, American school economics, economic nationalism, common good capitalism, stakeholder capitalism, and even quasi–socialism. Whichever your preferred term and whether or not you admire this emerging economic strand, it is not going anywhere soon.