The graph on the right from World Public Opinion isn't encouraging to those of us who favour the free market. Support for market economics is in steady decline across a wide range of countries and the polling for WPA was apparently carried out before the recent economic turmoil.
There are growing calls for more financial regulation - a trend noted by John Redwood MP on his blog yesterday. The two Democrat candidates for the US Presidency are worryingly protectionist.
And it isn't just left-leaning politicians who are leading the retreat from the market. Nicolas Sarkozy favours protectionism. Berlusconi is a big business right-winger rather than a pro-enterprise conservative. Angela Merkel is in coalition with groups that are dragging Germany decisively statewards.
We cannot be sure that the gains made by free market thinking in the 1980s will last.