The WSJ is always the last to admit that free markets don’t work, and then only with a snarl and a grudge.
They’re nothing if not dogmatic.
Well, free markets do work, by and large; in much the same way that a free society works, by and large.
What the WSJ and other free market types fail to acknowledge, however, is that an economy is more than just a financial thing; it's also a moral thing. The conesquences of a free market are in large part dependent upon the moral foundations of those who take part in it. John Adams' famous quote applies here:
"We have no government armed in power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Our Constitution was made only for a religious and moral people. It is wholly inadequate for the government of any other."
As it applies to the government (and the laws promulgated and enforced thereby), it also applies to the economy. Adams knew that limited government only works when "We the People" are individually self-policing.
The same goes for an economy. If "making money" outweighs any moral considerations about how that money is made ... then free markets have a problem.