The big question for free-market libertarians such as Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng is whether they can sustain their faith in the invisible hand of rational self-interest when it becomes, as it has this morning (26 September), a fist that is aimed in their direction.
While it was easy for Truss, in her single televised interview before taking over as Prime Minister, to denounce the BBC and “the media” as biased against her, she has no such defence against investors. The trading decisions in financial markets – almost all of which are made by machines – now concur that Truss and Kwarteng have embarked on a reckless and incoherent programme of economic vandalism.
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