The Free Market Center Journal
The voice of Free Markets
I have described the importance of consumers in the operation of free markets. All production and distribution exist to serve consumers. Consumers ultimately determine all market pricing. But, from where do these all-important consumers come? How do consumers get "created?" According to common usage, we call people who spend money in the economy "consumers." Consumers, … Continue reading Creating Consumers
Now that we have a precise definition of the word “price,” we can discuss price determination (or priced discovery) of what we refer to as “market price.” We can understand the determination of an individual price by understanding the previously discussed definition of “price.” The individual price results simply from the agreement between buyer and … Continue reading Price Determination—Part Two
The determination of prices represents another piece in the free market puzzle. As frequently as you hear people refer to prices, I find it surprising how many misconceptions people have about prices. How do you define “price.” What factors determine price? What role do prices have in resource allocation? In this article, I will address … Continue reading Price Determination—Part One
The importance of consumer satisfaction—which I have referred to as Consumer Sovereignty—plays a critical role in the behavior of all actors involved in the structure of production. Miners, manufacturers, distributors, and retailers will all try to lower their costs so they can pass the saving on to consumers. To understand this tendency, let's examine the … Continue reading Lower Producer Costs
Legislating minimum wages, at any level, is a dumb idea. It fits a pattern of dumb ideas suggested by the interventionists in governments. Many of the critics say that minimum wage laws lead to more unemployment. That statement turns out to be accurate, but I want to begin this discussion on a much more fundamental … Continue reading Consumer Sovereignty
In my post titled “Money Tree,” I explained in a general way how the addition of “non-market money[1]” distorts market prices, which in turn leads to a misallocation of resources. In this post, I will build a hypothetical model to show how that process works in more specific conditions. I will follow two different market … Continue reading Crazy Markets
As an experiment I have posted (below) a video version of the diagram I used to develop the Money Tree Post. If this experiment works, I might use videos such as this (only a little slicker) to enhance the explanation of additional points related to free markets. https://videopress.com/v/9l7qqCXZ?preloadContent=metadata Let me know what you think of … Continue reading Developing the Money Tree
We have seen a lot of craziness in the financial markets recently. A small group of investors, known as the Reddit investors, bid up several low-priced stock prices, squeezing short-sellers. Many people have applauded this activity depicting it as the small guy outsmarting the big guy — in this case, hedge funds. But, there is … Continue reading The Money Tree
I have had it with Facebook. I joined Facebook nearly ten years ago. I thought it would offer a place to converse with friends, family, and others of varying points of view. I could join or follow people or groups that interested me whether I agreed with them or not. I also could set up … Continue reading Quitting Facebook
The coronavirus has not caused lost jobs, closed businesses, restricted air travel, and many other adverse economic effects. Responses to the coronavirus have caused these effects. Were those responses appropriate? We may never know. Responses due to market intervention have been substantially different than they would have occurred in a free market. Introduction To properly … Continue reading Response to Coronavirus