Markets work ... within limits

Don't get me wrong (see Debunking Myth #2: The free market), markets work. It's just that there is no such thing as a "free market" except in some tightly controlled economic arenas. Inside the boundaries of these competitive markets the supply and demand curves work well to set prices as if an Invisible Hand was at play ... like sand passing through a funnel falls into a cone-shaped mound under a fairly wide range of conditions.

But consider for a moment Vice President Cheney calling for allowing free market forces to set the price of oil and determine the vehicles we drive ... while the Republicans pass specific tax breaks for the oil industry ... and the supply and price of oil are set by the oil cartel.

And is there anything MORE regimented than access to the floor of the New York Stock Exchange?

It is the realization that in establishing markets based on money as the medium of exchange, we effectively alter the fundamental nature of the economic landscape with profound immediate effects for those who have to undergo change from whatever ways and means of exchange were in effect previously. When we who would impose the change are not willing to pay the cost of our choice (exercised through power), we create a fundamental distortion in the economic landscape.

And we can begin to see the limitations of money-based markets in which goods and services are exchanged for cash ... all the costs of bringing those goods and services to market are not paid for at the time of purchase ... including the cost of establishing the market.

Money-based markets may be the best we can do, but they are instituted, controlled, and run by human beings. They are not given to us by God. I mean, get a grip, please.

More to follow.