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Wednesday 24th of April 2024

Markets Another reason for the concentration of corporate power is political capture. Americans invented modern antitrust policy, and love to rail against “statist” old Europe. But a fascinating study by academics Germán Gutiérrez and Thomas Philippon shows that EU markets are, in fact, more competitive. They have lower levels of concentration, lower excess profits, and lower regulatory barriers to entry. Rana Foroohar, Financial Times, July 23, 2018 © 2018 Kwiple.com
Markets Demand for low-priced houses grows, so few are built and prices rise; demand for high-priced houses drops, so they're overbuilt and prices fall © 2016 Kwiple.com
Markets In ordinary markets, a vendor can sell their product to a buyer, and once the transaction is complete, each walks away as free from the other as before. Labor markets are different. When workers sell their labor to an employer, they have to hand themselves  over to their boss, who gets to order them around. The labor contract, instead of leaving the seller as free as before, puts the seller under the authority of their boss. Elizabeth Anderson, Private Government  © 2018 Kwiple.com
Markets [I]t was not that long ago that we intuitively knew the difference between a market economy and a market society. The former is a way to produce goods and allocate capital. The latter is a place where the economy is the arbiter of everything. Even our social life has a price. As we consider a society in which even our private recesses can be monetized (I'm thinking of the social influencers my daughter's generation watch, who are today's best examples of winner-takes-all economics), we need to pay more atten- tion to those who have nothing to sell. Edward Luce, Financial Times, Mar. 27, 2020 © 2020 Kwiple.com
Markets A market economy inevitably and frequently inflicts serious harm on some citizens. By producing great inequalities in resources among citizens, market capitalism also fosters political inequality among the citizens of a democratic country. Robert A. Dahl, On Political Equality © 2018 Kwiple.com
Markets The market itself might not be linked to reality any more. It's the ‘greater fool theory’. If there is a greater fool that will buy it from me at a greater price, then I did good. Jordan Belfort, the real Wolf of Wall Street, on the 2017 stock market  © 2017 Kwiple.com
Markets One has to remember three big things about the market economy. The first and most fundamental is that one must not do everything that is profitable. Indeed, there has to be a lengthy list of activities one is not entitled to do. The second is that some of the things one must not do might be legal or, if contrary to law, hard to prevent. The last and most important therefore is that the survival of a civilised society depends on moral restraint, particularly from its leading figures. Martin Wolf, Financial Times, May 2, 2023 © 2023 Kwiple.com
Markets People continue to deploy the same justification of market society – that it would secure the personal independence of workers from arbitrary authority – long after it failed to deliver on its original aspiration. … a political agenda that once promised equalizing as well as liberating outcomes turned into one that reinforced private, arbitrary, unaccountable government over the vast majority. Elizabeth Anderson, Private Government  © 2018 Kwiple.com
Markets Technology has made markets faster, but arguably not better. It certainly hasn't made them cheaper. As academics such as Thomas Philippon have shown, none of the many technolog- ical “innovations” in the financial markets since 1880 has actually lowered the cost of financial intermediation. Someone is making as much money as ever. Fintech just makes it tougher to see who. Rana Foroohar, Financial Times, July 25, 2021 © 2021 Kwiple.com
 
Markets  What social networks have done to society, trading apps have begun doing to markets. Rana Foroohar, Financial Times, July 25, 2021 © 2021 Kwiple.com