Soros Starts Think-Tank to Battle Free-Market 'Dogma'

George Soros has pledged $50 million to start a think-tank whose mission will be to inject the field of economics, which Soros describes as “a dogma whose time has passed,” with new ideas that question the field’s devotion to free-market ideology. The Institute of New Economic Thinking will gather luminaries like Jeffrey Sachs, Kenneth Rogoff, and Joseph Stiglitz to reflect on what economic assumptions might have allowed the current financial crisis to transpire. In the wake of the crisis, even free-market devotee Alan Greenspan has questioned his absolute faith in the ideal. The institute will make research grants, convene symposiums, and establish a journal in the hopes of bringing new ideas to a field that some say is too entrenched in what Soros terms “economic fundamentalism.” “The ideologists in the free markets are still in command and I think they’ll be very difficult to remove because they have tenure,” Soros said. The financier has called for limits on risk, leverage, and compensation at big banks. “The dogma has lost touch with reality,” Soros said of current economics teachings.