[hxa7241]

This is, well, shallow propagandising guff. It promotes an agenda but diverts criticism with mythologising illusion.

Markets fail in various ways. Should we just let that happen? -- and just have 'faith' in the wonder of 'freedom' etc.? As Stiglitz says, a common reason why 'the invisible hand' is invisible is because it is not actually there.

[washedup]

Yes, markets should be allowed to fail. It is part of a very natural and successful process that has brought us to where we are. The same goes for governments. It's a trial and error process that goes back to the beginning of life. There is an anaology I really enjoy which relates the idea of saving economy and markets from the natural process of failing:

"In the 1970s the US developed a policy of forestry that espoused 100% prevention of forest fires; let’s call it “fire is not an option”. This policy resulted in the systemic suppression of small fires and eventually into very unbalanced forest ecosystems where fire is now not just an option, but a certainty of disaster. We now know that fire is a natural part of a forest’s life-cycle. Without fire, the forest floor gets overgrown, making it a source for bigger and hotter fires. When fires break out in a “managed” forest where fires have been suppressed for years, they burn so hot they turn the ground to glass. Fires that were survivable by trees are now so destructive that they denude hills and wipe out the entire ecosystem. Our financial system has become much like a poorly managed forest, harboring within it the increasing probability of a systemic and destructive conflagration."

Just as no single person knows how to create a pencil, no single person, or group of powerful individuals, have any idea of the complexities that exist when deciding how to guide an economy. It's naive to think otherwise.

From: http://antonopoulos.com/2014/03/02/failure-is-an-option/

[Bsharp]

I have more faith in freedom than faith in a group of humans with the same greedy intentions as any other human, but with regulatory power over everyone else in the market.

You were effective at using big words and quoting an economist, but not at providing any counterargument to the essay.

[jpadkins]

Failure is a feature, not a bug.