Markets and moral character

'Does the free market corrode moral character?' It's the question put to 13 scholars and public figures, each of whom answers with a mini-essay. They say: yes; no; yes and no; of course; it depends. You may begin to find that your head is spinning after a bit. The free market being what it is - a rather large and complex institution sitting beside, affecting and affected by, other institutions, and interacting with human character, motive and action in a multiplicity of ways - pictures of its positive and negative effects and their possible combinations can be painted in a wide variety of ways. Take your pick. Michael Walzer compares the market's morally corroding tendencies with those of political democracy, and contrasts the ways we put, and don't put, limits on them.