the stossel guy comes from the point of view that the markets in the west are free markets
Er, he doesn't. In fact, he rants fairly often about how they could be freer. His position -- and one that I agree with -- is that the closer to free they are, the more prosperous they are bound to be. and i dont see why a market where a powerful consumer / purchaser of
goods strong arms a much weaker producer of the raw material ... cannot be called a market failure... (this is how the metals, oil, cash crop market in africa operates...)
If you examine specific examples, you will see that they involve either government collusion or a rule-of-law issue. In a reasonably free market with a strong rule of law, monopolies and cartels are not sustainable.Mostof what we often refer to as 'market failures' result from a failure to let the market operate. On 7/9/07, ashok _ <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
On 7/9/07, Amit Varma wrote: > > > > the sudan, nigeria, dr congo, kenya, tanzania, zambia... any of these > > countries would fit that picture..... > > Thanks, don't know enough about those countries to comment further. But any > cartel that exists can only do so either with government collusion or in the > absence of a proper rule of law. Those are governmental failures, not market > failures. i think its easy to look at this in a black and white and conclude that its all the fault at one end and not the other.... when you mention the market i assume you mean the global market, and not something local / internal (which is not that easily influenced by external economic forces... ). the stossel guy comes from the point of view that the markets in the west are free markets -that is a fundamental assumption that i find false. i dont get how a protected market which operates on subsidies... and one that buys raw materials at artificially low prices from overseas markets and dumps their garbage in the same overseas markets can be called a free market....who is it free for ? and i dont see why a market where a powerful consumer / purchaser of goods strong arms a much weaker producer of the raw material ... cannot be called a market failure... (this is how the metals, oil, cash crop market in africa operates...)
-- Amit Varma http://www.indiauncut.com
