This topic came up on a recent "Planet Money" show. They raised the
issue of market equilibrium with a noted professor. The professor
replied that those preaching the free market had simply not studied
enough economics. Equilibrium is just one of many possible states for
a market and only happens when a whole list of conditions are met.
Many people work very hard to assure that such conditions are not
met. That's how they make their money.
So the question for our FMFBs is: what do you do when the market is
not at equilibrium and somebody is using that disequilibrium to rip
us all off and maintain the disequilibrium. Can we call the cops? One
recent example of this is the crazy salaries that Wall Street bankers
pay themselves. Another is how we let M$ continue to rip us all off.
On Jun 13, 2009, at 1:26 PM, Jeff Wright wrote:
Keep in mind what a market is. It isn't an unthinking behemoth,
like the
state, but a collection of inputs, outputs, information and
decisions made
by millions and millions of atomized actors. Is your snideness
indicating
that you think a central authority could do a better job at
determining
people's choices?
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