The M Society

Buzzflash interviewed David Cay Johnston.

BuzzFlash: We hear a lot politically from the corporate side that it’s best to deregulate the economy and move as close as possible towards an ideal, perhaps mythical, “free market.” One might conclude that there isn’t any regulation that favors corporations, but I would assume from Free Lunch that you would beg to differ with that concept.

David Cay Johnston: Markets do lots of fabulous things, and they’re very good for pricing things. But all markets have rules. There is no such thing as deregulation. What you have is new regulations. And the new regulations, in many cases, take Adam Smith’s “invisible hand of the marketplace” and handcuff it. They diminish competition. They insulate businesses from bad decisions. They drive prices up, not down. Calling something “the market” doesn’t make it a market. We have rigged markets. In some cases, we do have better markets. It is not black and white — it’s gray. But it’s pretty dark gray.

Popularity: 13% [?]