I am grateful to William Keegan (“Francis and consumer capitalism”, 7 December) for his analysis of Pope Francis’ critique of free-market capitalism. I was amazed that economists in the US should have been so hostile to Francis’ comments. His observation that “trickle-down” economic theories have little basis in reality is not a new papal insight. It is widely accepted that neo-liberal capitalism produces winners and losers.The notion that widespread poverty is generated by the laws of the market is well documented. We should recall the Boris Johnson remark about the importance of greed as a catalyst for economic success. This week also saw a welcome for agreement in Indonesia made by the 159 countries of the World Trade Organization (WTO). Are we to as