An Evening Lecture by Manhattan Institute’s 2025 Hayek Book Prize winner
Johan Norberg
author of
The Capitalist Manifesto: Why the Global Free Market Will Save the World
Today’s story about global capitalism, shared by right-wing and left-wing populists, but also by large sections of the political and economic establishment, does not deny that prosperity has been created, but it says it ended up in far too few hands. This in turn has made it popular to talk about the global economy as a geopolitical zero-sum game, where we have to fight to control new innovations, introduce trade barriers, and renationalize value chains. More broadly, capitalism is accused of fueling glaring inequality, populist revolts, climate change, and China’s global conquest.
In this incisive and passionate investigation, Johan Norberg instead states the case for capitalism and the vital role played by the free market in today’s uncertain world. Ultimately, he argues that a move away from global capitalism would not only squeeze the growth out of the economy but also deepen an already large social exclusion for the vulnerable—for the world’s poor, it would be a killing blow.
Johan Norberg is a senior fellow at the Cato Institute and a writer who focuses on globalization, human progress and intellectual history. Norberg is the author and editor of more than 20 books, translated into more than 30 languages. They include In Defense of Global Capitalism, Progress: Ten Reasons to Look Forward to the Future, and Open: The Story of Human Progress. Both latter books were named by The Economist as a book of the year in 2016 and 2020, respectively.
Photo: Martin Barraud / OJO Images via Getty Images
