Joe Biden’s Pro-Market Agenda by Katharina Pistor

With a new order to combat anti-competitive practices in the US economy, President Joe Biden has focused on a problem that has been building up for years. Workers, consumers and small businesses change and the government, not the market, gives them the best hope.

New York – For free traders, government is always the bad guy. As President Ronald Reagan noted in his memory in the first place introductory address, “In the current crisis, government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem. “

Since the 1980s, markets have been idealized as the only way to achieve an optimal allocation of resources. A healthy economy is driven by the spirit of entrepreneurship, not politics, because the price mechanism reliably transmits information about the value of goods and services. Buyers bid, sellers sell to the highest bidder and all parties are well informed and rational decision makers. An equilibrium price is always reached, guaranteeing an effective result. This is a perfect world.

However, the real world is not perfect. Market participants face transaction and information costs. Negative external influences and market failures are inevitable. Even ardent supporters of laissez-faire agree that sometimes some state intervention is needed, although the state must not do anything to distort market results.