“Doesn’t anybody have anything new to offer? . . . . [Y]es: . . . unleash the awesome power of markets . . . to uplift the poor . . . it just might be what the world needs now. . . . [Posner and Weyl are] smart and iconoclastic, and their book bursts with ideas like kernels of corn on a hot stove.”
“Radical Markets…could be best described as an interesting new way of looking at the subject that is sometimes called 'political economy' - tackling the big questions of how markets and politics and society intersect…All in all, I am optimistic that the various behavioral kinks around implementing 'radical markets' in practice could be worked out...I particularly welcome the use of the blockchain and crypto space as a testing ground…Could decentralized institutions like these be used to solve the key defining challenges of the twenty first century? All in all, I highly recommend Radical Markets…to anyone interested in these kinds of issues, and look forward to seeing the discussion that the book generates.”
“Perhaps the most ambitious attempt to rethink democracy and markets since Milton Friedman. Twenty years from now this just might be the book people are talking about. The writing is excellent, with great examples and historical detail. I admire the ambition and willingness to experiment, a rare thing in economics these days. It just might help launch a new branch of political economy.”
“I loved the book. I don’t believe it, but I loved it.”
“'A brilliant, provocative work that is somewhere along the spectrum between economics and science fiction.”
“These ideas will creep into public discourse and be fought tooth and nail by the elites and the wealthy…sounds like a socialist attack the rich and the corporate establishment, but many label him ‘extreme right’ because he offers more open, liquid and competitive markets than…anyone has imagined to this day.”
“In our difficult times, with mounting anxieties over migration, global inequality, and the cohesiveness of public culture, many are inclined to reject market-based solutions as heartless and elitist. Eric Posner and Glen Weyl argue that market-based ideas of a radically new sort (though based on neglected insights from the past) have the power to create greater equality and reciprocity. Counterintuitive and fascinating, this book will be an essential part of the debate about global issues going forward.”
“This book is a fascinating book filled with ideas and at some abstract level I see it as presenting a new set of rules of the game that if we were to adopt these rules…I believe that these rules would produce economic growth and would reduce inequality in our society. I’ve actually never read a book with so many ideas all bundled together.”
"I highly recommend this book! Replacing markets by auctions (sort of). Whether you agree or not, it shows how much liberalism is able to renew itself."
“It’s extremely thought provoking and clearly brilliant…Radical Markets certainly made me think about property, information, power. Well worth reading.”
“In 1903, Elizabeth Magie patented her Landlord’s Game, a property-based board game. It was created with two sets of rules: a monopolist set in which, when wealth was created, the winner took all; and an anti-monopolist set in which all wealth created was shared across society. It is revealing that only the former set of rules took off, giving birth to the multi-million pound best-selling game known as Monopoly. In many respects, the real world has imitated this choice in its own set of societal rules.This fascinating new book by Glen Weyl and Eric Posner, Radical Markets, begins to sketch a vision of how society might look if it adopted Magie’s second set of societal rules. Unlike in a board game played with monopoly money, the stakes in this societal game could scarcely be higher and the importance of this book could scarcely be greater.”
“I applaud the ambition of the book, and hope to see more like it...Their best proposal come in section one…For property that is publicly known and visible, such as land and patents…this idea seems ready to go live, and I endorse it…Overall, it is great to see a wider public becoming exposed to ambitious proposals for social reform based on solid social design analysis.”
“'Laissez-faire Socialism' sounds like an oxymoron but Radical Markets makes a good case for it. While I'm generally skeptical of "post-capitalism," typically neo-Marxist solutions to today's issues, there are a couple of compelling proposals in this book.”
“We have to keep thinking about how we can put forward the kinds of political alternatives that will allow us to beat Donald Trump, to beat the populist wave around the world…One of the more interesting…ideas to do that in recent months is a really interesting new book by Glen Weyl and Eric Posner called Radical Markets: Uprooting Capitalism and Democracy for a Just Society.”
“Radical Markets thinks big and builds daring proposals, all on a unified theme: the need for maintaining competition and eliciting decentralized information, whose neglect led to the demise of planned economies. Whether you are convinced by the specific proposals or not, your confidence in your worldview may well be shattered by the depth and originality of the analysis.”
“The new revolutionaries in economic thought come for the University of Chicago…who have the ambition of using market mechanisms to combat the excesses of capitalism…This innovative proposal deserves debate at a moment when the left lacks new ideas to combat inequality in the face of mounting populism.”
“A central persuasive ambition of Radical Markets is to ignore the traditional left-right debate that dominated the twentieth century...Its well-founded, out-of the-box solutions address, in a stroke, all sorts of major social challenges. That make it a refreshing and dazzling book for readers interested in radical new solutions. Whether it can convince the critics of mainstream economics with its plea for ever more radical markets is the leading question.”
“Both a savage critique of 'techno-feudalism' and an idealistic appeal to share the fruits of our collective intelligence more fairly.”
“(T)he ‘decentralized revolution’ has yet to…truly change things for the better…A new book…might hold the answer. ‘Radical Markets’ is reinvigorating the Ethereum ecosystem with ambition to change the world…by helping create a more just and fair society….While Weyl is somewhat of an outsider in the cryptospace, he might be exactly the type of thought leader the Ethereum ecosystem needs.”
“Read this difficult and provocative book. It made my head hurt, and then spin. In a world where our current economic and political models are worth defending but are straining, this can only be a good thing.”
“Weyl may well wind up becoming Ethereum’s chief economic thinker.”
"At a time when U.S. politics chews relentlessly on stale ideologies left over from the Cold War, the originality and ambition of these ideas make for refreshing science fiction. Like good scientists, Posner and Weyl stress the need for testing and evaluation. Yet what makes their proposals seem especially fictional nowadays is the presumption of a functioning technocracy in search of evidence-based, win-win solutions to common problems. If nothing else, this book is a reminder of how far from sober rationality American government has come."
“Just came from watching the genius@glenweyl present#RadicalMarkets. Anyone interested in economic policy would be enriched by thinking through these visionary ideas for themselves, whatever they conclude.”
“This system has enormous potential — simple, fair, progressive taxes and a more dynamic economy. It would be much easier to develop new infrastructure, build new homes, buy your neighbour’s garden, and pour concrete all over twee villages to build monorails or airport runways.”
“(A)n arresting if eccentric manifesto for rebooting liberalism…the policies they advocate…may help jolt liberals out of their hand-wringing, and shape a new line of market-oriented thinking, as Milton Friedman’s ‘Capitalism and Freedom’ did…refreshing and welcome in its willingness to question received wisdom…(L)iberals must find some antidote to populism and protectionism. A little outlandishness may be necessary.”
"What I love is just some new ideas, because the existing ideas to solve the injustices and inequalities aren’t working! A must-read."
“Well this is the most interesting thing I’ve read in ages! A credible alternative to private property!”
“It strikes me as a very important book indeed….Radical Markets is excellent, and well worth reading. For me, a good non-fiction book is one which occasionally forces me to stop reading and just think for a while. This one did that several times.”
“Eric Posner & Glen Weyl’s Radical Markets: Uprooting Capitalism and Democracy for A Just Society is an enormously ambitious new book, one that challenges conventional wisdom and advances bold reform programs…There is much to admire and quite a bit to endorse in Posner and Weyl’s willingness to rethink the obvious, their resistance of the conventional wisdoms of both right and left…and their imaginative reform proposals."
"A very thought-provoking book is a bizarre fusion of ideas drawn from the classical liberal . . . . and socialist tradition(s). . . . It contains ideas . . . that really do make you think. It is a really fun book to read and of you are someone who actually likes having your suppositions and beliefs challenged, take a look at it."
“The most important part of [this] book are the ideas: radical, interesting. There were things I thought I knew for sure that I wasn’t sure I knew afterwards.”
“One of the most exciting books in the social sciences published in the past several years. Very original, using a consistent ideological approach, and intellectually compelling.”
“I don't say this lightly but it is my firm belief that this is the most consequential work of political economy of the 21st century. If you haven't already, RUN out and buy a copy.”
“Many of today’s boldest thinkers across the ideological spectrum think the economy’s most serious malady isn’t inequality, populism or big government: it’s monopoly...Now, from the libertarian end of the spectrum comes a more radical approach...redesigning market mechanisms from the ground up to break monopolies’ hold on our data, property, economy and even politics.”
“Overall, this book has renewed my confidence that mechanism design is a powerful tool for social change. Combined with the decentralizing potential of cryptocurrencies, market radicalism could forever change the landscape of political economy. No longer is it necessary to strike a balance between freedom and equality; by fully unleashing the potential of markets, both can be maximized simultaneously. I would highly recommend reading this book; even if you don’t like the proposals, it will give you a taste of the potential of mechanism design for radical social change.”
“There are a lot of very provocative and very well thought-out ideas in there and it is more than worth a read…I think I talked to this guy for thirty-five minutes, which is somewhat unheard of in the radio world, and would have talked to him for at least an hour longer.”
“It will pay the readers…great intellectual returns to invest significant time in studying this book very carefully. It is ambitious and bold, and I think it should excite the imagination and motivate careful scholarship and analytical rigor among both critics and those who want to pursue the line of argument laid out.”
“Do read book - interesting throughout! Not convinced w underlying claims about monopolization & inequality mainly reflecting markets not working, but some policy ideas nevertheless fascinating solutions to genuine problems.”
“Vitalik of Ethereum believes quadratic voting to be a leading candidate to address governance problems on blockchain”