The unfortunate thing about markets

Posted on May 9 2018

From an FT video this morning:

Which is why most problems can never have a pure market solution.

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2 Responses

  1. Cofe Baker says:
    May 9 2018 at 4:47 pm

    Richard,
    If Peter has some a, and wants to swap it for some b, and Paul has some b, and wants to swap it for some a, then neither Peter nor Paul regard a and b as being equal. On the contrary, they both think – rightly – that they are getting the better of the bargain. If they didn’t think that, the bargain wouldn’t get made.
    In other words, the fortunate thing about markets is precisely that nothing is ever equal.

    • Andy Crow says:
      May 10 2018 at 5:25 pm

      Cofe Baker says:

      “…..neither Peter nor Paul regard a and b as being equal. On the contrary, they both think — rightly — that they are getting the better of the bargain. If they didn’t think that, the bargain wouldn’t get made.”

      I like that.

      But unfortunately it does get very complicated.