State capitalism vs the free market: Which performs better?

President Obama opened a controversy when he made the following comments during a campaign stop at a fire station in Roanoke, Virginia:

The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that:

ECONOMIST Kenneth Rogoff starts off a new Project Syndicate piece in punchy fashion:Until now, the relentless march of technology and globalization has played out hugely in favor of high-skilled labor, helping to fuel record-high levels of income and wealth inequality around the world. Will the endgame be renewed class warfare, with populist governments coming to power, stretching the limits of income redistribution, and asserting greater state control over economic life?

|Peter Boettke|

I read various things stating that the USA is behaving in socialist (or similar ways). And there are often attempts to state that what the writer desires is capitalism and what they don’t like is an attack on motherhood, apple pie and capitalism.

Here's a potentially confusing footnote from Roderick Long:

Socialism is a dirty word in many parts of the US, but as the FT reports, the government has turned its mortgage market into a giant nationalized enterprise on a par with China’s Red Army with over 90% of mortgages subsidized by the state and aided by so-called "progressive" or "redistributive" policies.

International corporations use “free market” capitalism ideology to justify globalization and create a “world-market-state.” Supposedly, “free market” capitalism makes America’s economy efficient and, therefore, far more prosperous. In practice, however, international corporations promote laws based on “free market” capitalism—for their own benefit.