Monday, January 07, 2008

Free Market

<> no rules. (grrr)

This is one of my number one gripes when I hear folks talk about economics and capitalism - that the "free" in free markets means there are no rules or regulations, an impossibility. (Just heard it repeated in an NPR interview which inspired me to post.) It has been very surprising how many people upon hearing that I was planning to attend the University of Chicago for business school would give me an earful about Milton Friedman, or how conservative (??) the school was. It's hard not to have an opinion about economics or capitalism but too often these opinions are formed on anecdotes and misinterpretations, not a rigorous study of the philosophy and the evidence. Leads to so many frustrating conversations ... to be continued ... potentially.

1 comment:

Mo Zhou said...

It's easy for people to form an opinion and they can't help the eager to express it, one obvious example I can think of is people's opinion on politics. People don't study factual evidence (and a lot time facts are hard to find) that would support their opinion of certain policy or political figure. Yet, people can't help talk about it. hehee....

Taleb is lecturing this Friday in Chicago. Wish I could go...