For a long time, I thought Ayn Rand 'free market' fanatics were totally wrong. Nowadays, I think that maybe the philosophy has some merit. Maybe without government currency manipulation and regulatory capture, the free market might actually work and prevent monopolies from forming since, without money printing, big companies would get wiped out periodically whenever there is a financial crisis (instead of being bailed out). Also, without rigid regulations to smother internal and external competition and limit liability, companies would break apart naturally before they have the chance to grow too big (they would be out-competed or with a fair judicial system; they would be sued out of existence). I think it's mostly currency manipulation, regulations and government agencies which are protecting companies by smothering competition on multiple fronts.

The problem is that it seems to be almost impossible to create the necessarily conditions for real capitalism to work (it only seems to happen briefly and is quickly subverted) - You need an environment of total anarchy. Even if we did manage to create those conditions, the next generations would forget their importance and revert to some form of cronyism again with centralized coordination. Humans seem to be doomed to endless cycles of boom and bust. It's just unfortunate that some of us are born at this particular point in history.

I agree though that the biggest problem now is that there is an almost total absence of ideology from society and politics and that's disturbing.