Freedom for Capital, Not People : The Mont Pelerin Society and the Origins of the Neoliberal Monetary Order

Author: Schmelzer, Matthias

Political science & theory

Published on 10 June 2025 by Verso Books in the United Kingdom.

Paperback / softback | 208 pages, 1 chart
139 x 210 x 15 | 196g

Based on new archival sources, Freedom for Capital, Not People tells the story of how the Mont Pèlerin Society transformed the world economy. Founded in 1947 by economist Friedrich von Hayek, by the turn of the 1970s the society commanded influence at the highest levels of international monetary policy - with debates sparked by Hayek, Milton Friedman and Ludwig von Mises emigrating from the seminar room to the halls of power. The group's collective agenda, the result of years of fierce argument and shrewd political strategising, would dominate the next half century of global capitalism.