I’d posit that we don’t have free markets.

Banks get to loan money into existence. Why can’t we do that? Because we are not on the list of winners as picked by the (gov) regulators, who themselves are influenced (by those winners already on the list) to not let more people onto the winners list. 

 I agree with you, but officially when they say free markets, they mean free of regulations and mercantilism was the opposite, to give you a clue. So free markets are nothing more than the jungle law. They have nothing to do with freedom (except if you are an oligarch, similar to what you said)