even a burgeoning

“The chief business of the American people is business.” So it was back in 1925 when President Calvin Coolidge offered that now famous aphorism about America’s fevered, overreaching economy in the roaring 1920’s. Coolidge didn’t foresee the coming crash and depression, nor could he possibly have foreseen the degree to which the American business acumen he so admired would come to dominate a global economy by the end of the century.

As we prepare to enter the 21st Century, we live in the age of “Transcendent Capitalism.” Competing systems of controlled economies are in disrepute and full flight, vanquished by that particularly American combination of capital investment, free markets and representative democracy. The United States is enjoying booming equity markets and a robust economy that—despite serious income and wealth inequities—have made fervent believers of a citizenry now invested as never before in stocks and bonds as essay writing companies said.

Earlier in this decade, there was even a burgeoning faith that capitalism alone could solve all ills: The free market system, left unfettered, could feed the poor, shelter the homeless, and provide cheap and easy health care for all. That radical notion is waning, though, and the pendulum is swinging back to a more moderate construct that views American market-based business as a partner with government and public trust institutions—universities, philanthropies, newspapers, etc.—in shaping a strong, equitable society.