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> Or based on lobbying, political preferences, or name recognition? Ah yes, as opposed to the rational private market of large capital investments to create ne
by MiroF 6y ago
> Or based on lobbying, political preferences, or name recognition?
Ah yes, as opposed to the rational private market of large capital investments to create new industries, which is apolitical and has no cronyism /s (never mind no price incentive to massively invest in large-scale manufacturing for a temporary pandemic)
- trentnix 6y agoThe market at least has a means of rewarding the rational and punishing the irrational. As you imply, cronyism is how irrational advantage is gained. And price controls are another form of cronyism, as they exclusively protect the entrenched in a market from competition.
- MiroF 6y agoThere is no "the market." To some extent, I agree with you for publicly traded markets. I do not think it even remotely holds in the illiquid limit of massive-scale private capital investment markets. I would rather that power be wielded by actors exercising public power shaped by institutional constraints than by private actors who can wield it in an arbitrary manner, particularly in the context of a pandemic where there is a huge societal difference between 10 $10 masks and 100 $1 ones.
- trentnix 6y agoOn the contrary, there is nothing but the market. It can be free, controlled, or somewhere in between. Capital is always traded for goods and services, but it’s not always financial capital.