In 1945 Britain, this meant the stuff of industrialism — iron, steel, coal, railroads, etc. In 1945, Aneurin Bevan, a leading Labor politician, said: “Britain is an island bedded on coal and surrounded by fish; only an organizing genius could produce a coal shortage and a fish shortage simultaneously.” Socialism soon produced that.

Today, the commanding heights of America’s economy are financial services, and regarding them, the line between the public and private sectors is being blurred to indistinctness. What is the American equivalent of coal and fish? We might find out.