Hello Reader,
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​"No power on earth can stop an idea whose time has come."
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​When Finance Minister Manmohan Singh spoke these words to Parliament in 1991, India was hemorrhaging. Inflation spiraled out of control. Gold reserves were being secretly airlifted to London as collateral for emergency loans. The nation teetered on the edge of bankruptcy. But Singh wasn't proposing to fix the economy—he was announcing its liberation. The unstoppable idea was economic freedom, and nearly a billion people were about to be set free.
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Today, free market capitalism is under assault. Socialist sentiment surges across America, and my reader Tim's concerns about inequality cut deep—when 8 people control more wealth than 3.6 billion humans, it demands serious answers. The causes are complex, the solutions elusive, and I'll wrestle with these troubling trends in future essays.
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But here's what I know: economic freedom works. And if you want proof, witness what Singh unleashed that day in Parliament.

1 Billion Dreams Unleashed

Singh would go on to become Prime Minister, building an incredible legacy during which India:
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• Shattered the License Raj - ending the system where entrepreneurs needed government permission to start or expand businesses. This wasn't regulation; it was economic imprisonment. By freeing businesses from bureaucrats, India unleashed individual initiative on an unprecedented scale—the right to create, innovate, and pursue prosperity without begging permission.
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• Embraced foreign investment - lifting caps that had banned multinational companies from entire sectors. This wasn't surrendering to foreign control; it was embracing competition over nationalist isolation. When international corporations brought capital and technology to India, they didn't steal jobs—they created millions of them, connecting Indian workers to global markets and modern opportunities.
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• Slashed import tariffs - forcing domestic industries to compete globally rather than hiding behind protectionist walls. This seemed harsh to established businesses, but it was liberation for consumers who suddenly had access to better, cheaper products. Protection breeds mediocrity; competition breeds excellence.
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• Freed the rupee - devaluing the currency and making it convertible for trade, injecting realism into monetary policy. When governments manipulate currencies, they're manipulating the basic tool of human cooperation—money itself.
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• Dismantled state monopolies - breaking government control over telecommunications, aviation, and energy. These weren't "public services"—they were government-enforced monopolies that delivered poor service at high prices while stifling innovation.
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• Privatized state enterprises - restructuring or selling thousands of government-owned businesses, ending decades of state dominance. This wasn't about enriching capitalists; it was about freeing resources from political control and directing them toward productive uses. When politicians run businesses, they serve political interests. When entrepreneurs run businesses, they serve consumers.
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• Abolished price controls - allowing supply and demand to determine prices in agriculture, fuel, and consumer goods. This seemed dangerous to critics who feared exploitation, but markets proved more protective than politicians. When prices can move freely, they signal scarcity and abundance, encouraging production where it's needed most.
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• Reformed taxation - broadening the base and reducing rates, making it easier to comply and harder to evade. This shift from punitive to productive taxation encouraged entrepreneurship and investment while actually increasing government revenue.
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• Liberalized banking - increasing competition by encouraging private banks and improving access to credit. This broke the state's monopoly on finance, allowing entrepreneurs to access capital based on merit rather than political connections.
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• Modernized securities markets - expanding stock markets. This gave ordinary Indians the opportunity to participate in their nation's growth, democratizing wealth creation rather than concentrating it in government hands.
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• Embraced a pro-market mindset - replacing the socialist command economy of Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s first Prime Minister, with a political consensus favoring entrepreneurship and growth. This wasn't just policy change; it was philosophical transformation from collective control to individual opportunity.
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The results were breathtaking. Between 1991 and 2015, India's economy grew sevenfold. More than 300 million people escaped extreme poverty—the largest poverty reduction in human history. Life expectancy increased by 11 years. Infant mortality plummeted. This wasn't trickle-down economics; it was the human potential of a billion empowered people unleashed.
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The Unstoppable Idea Spreads

Every one of these reforms was a “free market” solution. Such is the power of the much-maligned “capitalist” philosophy, if done right.
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Similar transformations occurred in China after Deng Xiaoping's 1978 reforms and are happening now in Argentina under Javier Milei, who has begun dismantling decades of socialist policies. Inflation is in freefall. The economy is growing again. Poverty is plummeting.
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The critics aren't wrong about inequality, and I don't claim to have all the answers. But history tells us more government control isn't the solution.
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Victor Hugo, whose famous line Singh borrowed, was right. No power on earth could stop the idea of economic freedom once its time had come to India. And today, that same unstoppable idea calls to every nation still shackled by the chains of government control.
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​All I want is for everyone to be free.

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