Clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right: Free market edition

I not too long ago expressed shock about finding myself in agreement with a Kennedy about something. Well, the joke is on us. It turns out that Kennedy isn't exactly the pro-free market guy I thought he may have been. Even though he talks about free markets in a positive way, which is a good thing, Kevin Carson has pointed out in his most recent post that Kennedy's understanding and support of free markets is pretty, well, nonsensical. The following Kennedy quote should be enough to show how nonsensical:

"And the free market has to be protected through government regulation."

Well, at least he recognizes that a) corporations don't want free markets and b) big government and big business are in collusion to help big business avoid things like free competition and internalized costs.

I'm well aware of the many right-wingers who, sometimes intentionally and sometimes not, misrepresent free market ideology and thus give it a bad rap amongst the left. Shit, I came across a blog a few days ago where the guy considered The Economist magazine to be a free market libertarian rag. Since I was in a good mood up until that point, I merely laughed it off rather than puking all over the keyboard. Aren't those guys pro-NAFTA? Give me a break! As commonplace as such faux free marketeers are on the right, I must say that RFK Jr. is the first faux free marketeer of the left I've ever encountered.