It means more than just free trade though. It's free trade on every level of society, not just between countries. Ironically, it's the exact category of logic

It means more than just free trade though. It's free trade on every level of society, not just between countries. Ironically, it's the exact category of logical error that Adam Smith points out in Mercantilism in "The Wealth Of Nations", except it's done in reverse. Neoliberalism is essentially the (mis)application of macroeconomic logic to microeconomics, which leads to the conclusion that the market optimizes for the public good, a conclusion which is held as an article of faith among neoliberals. Their almost religious fervor gave them a lot of impetus for a while, but as examples of neoliberal policy failing to live up to the promise have been piling up in the last 30 years, their currency of "dude, trust me" has faced significant devaluation. It's lead to the dismantlement and privatization of of social institutions to the clear detriment of everyone who isn't a shareholder in the privately owned replacements. The American prison system is perhaps the best example of this going awry.