Speaking of List, there's an interesting article in the latest Harpers by Michael Lind defending List as some kind of precursor to "Third Way" economics, although Lind does not use this term specifically. Lind, by the way, is an ex-conservative who has moved in a slightly leftish populist direction like Kevin Phillips. List argued that the free flow of capital in the 1800s was damaging to the health of society and thought that controls had to be instituted. This sort of argument is nothing new, obviously. The problem with it now and back then is that it views the "excesses" of capitalism as something to be remedied through enlightened policies. Edward Luttwak calls these excesses "turbo-capitalism" and Bill Greider is fixated on them as well. If we could only go back to the good old days of FDR when the government put people back to work, by putting them in uniform and sending them off to war.
What none of them get, since they are not Marxists, is that the "excesses" are normal for the stage of capitalism we have entered into since the early 1970s. Greed and stupidity are not driving Reaganomics and Clintonomics (same thing, actually). Rather it is the ineluctable logic of world capitalism fighting over shrinking markets. It is the same buildup of contradictions that preceded WWI and WWII. The system will continue to generate powerful self-destructive tendencies that have to be met head-on.
The worst thing about liberalism and social democracy in such times is not that it is wrong, but rather that it disarms us by fostering illusions. If there is one thing you can say about classical Marxism, it is that it fights all sorts of illusions in the workers movement. If you want soporific illusions, smoke some weed. Just leave politics to more sober folks.
Louis Proyect
(http://www.panix.com/~lnp3/marxism.html)