This is a big digression from the thread's topic, but free market is a complete myth. There is no such thing, never was. Those are the pipe dreams of laissez faire economists as far as I'm concerned.
Of course, the central planning of communism is completely insane. Basically every so called free market is some sort of approximation to a free market. But everywhere you have tariffs on imports to protect the domestic economy and government intervention (regulation as the term goes) where seen fit. What this means is that so called socialism actually reigns supreme in the economic reality of the world. Government intervenes in some areas, the rest is left free.