David,
Do you believe that markets work the same, and well, in every
industry, regardless of the cost structure of the industry?
Gene Coyle
On Mar 10, 2009, at 8:14 PM, David B. Shemano wrote:
Doug Henwood and Michael Perelman mockingly say:
Of course, we might ask Hayek what happens when the market makes a
disastrous mistake???
The market can't make mistakes. It represents the collective
wisdom of
millions of dispersed actors and is therefore smarter than any of
us.
Just ask Alan Greenspan about why house prices weren't in a bubble
in
2005.
For fun, take your opponents seriously.
Markets don't make mistakes. People make mistakes. A lot of
mistakes. People acting in the market make mistakes. People acting
in charitable organizations make mistakes. People acting in
governments make mistakes. People in family and romantic
relationships make mistakes. People.
Since people are flawed mistake makers, the question becomes what
institutional arrangements are best conducive to good decision-
making by people and minimizing mistakes by people? What
institutional arrangements best allow mistakes by people to be
corrected by people? I think theory and history argue in favor of
markets as opposed to the alternatives on the table.
Neither I, nor Hayek, nor anybody I take seriously, believes markets
inherently produce a Panglossian result. All that we believe is
that markets produce better results than the alternatives.
David Shemano
_______________________________________________
pen-l mailing list
[email protected]
https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
_______________________________________________
pen-l mailing list
[email protected]
https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
