“Every day there are willing buyers and willing sellers, engaging in transactions for mutual benefit — and when you aggregate those, that is the market,” says Professor of Political Economy and UK House of Lords member Syed Kamall, in this episode of Beyond Economics and Back, recorded during his visit to Vilnius for an LFMI seminar.

Kamall has spent his life exploring how ideas, policies and institutions shape the choices people can make. In this conversation with Elena Leontjeva, President of the Lithuanian Free Market Institute, they delve into what truly sustains open societies—not just efficiency or profit, but trust, responsibility, and long-term thinking. The discussion explores the moral foundations of entrepreneurship, the often-invisible role of profit, and how it is people—not policies—who make markets work.

The episode also touches on how faith traditions, including Islam, can inspire liberty, dignity, and free enterprise. With philosophical clarity and political realism, Kamall offers a rare glimpse into what makes freedom truly function—in daily life, markets and policy.