Wednesday, January 8, 2014

About markets...................................

Stuart Schneiderman analyses a (gated Wall Street Journal) Paul Rubin essay on markets.  It is worthy of your reading and you may even learn a new word.   Blog post is here.  Brief excerpts here:

How can we explain this emporiophobia—a fear of markets—given the overwhelming evidence that such institutions provide the greatest wealth, health and happiness for humankind?

Why does the free market have such a bad reputation? Rubin suggests that the discourse about markets has distorted the truth. We have all been told that people compete in markets; we have not been told that people cooperate in them.

He wants to rethink the notion of  the free market to emphasize cooperation and to de-emphasize competition. After all, market transactions are negotiated compromises in which both parties feel like they have gained. A market in which some gain at the expense of others cannot long function.

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