At the moment, the United States is focused on what’s gone wrong with the private sector. There’s a lot to talk about. From Bernie Madoff’s self-declared Ponzi scheme, to Dick Fuld’s Jonestown-style collective immolation at Lehman Brothers, to the subprime lending fiasco, the US version of the market economy – and many of its leading players – have failed more spectacularly than even the darkest dreams of Noam Chomsky could predict.

The crisis of US capitalism has been humbling for a country that likes to view the free market as one of its proudest achievements and most valuable exports. But it is a corollary of these market failures which might prove even more intellectually unsettling for the country: the already vastly expanded role of government.