Does Guatemala have a free market economy? https://www.byteseu.com/1340853/ #BlackMarkets #bureaucracy #capitalism #Corruption #economy #FreeMarkets #guatemala #SouthAmerica #Travel #World
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https://www.europesays.com/uk/389719/ Does Guatemala have a free market economy? #BlackMarkets #bureaucracy #Business #capitalism #corruption #FreeMarkets #Guatemala #Markets #SouthAmerica #Travel #UK #UnitedKingdom #World
Our choice is not between free markets and state control, for most adults spend their working lives controlled by a third thing entirely: private government.
https://www.conferencesthatwork.com/index.php/soapbox/2019/05/private-government
Trump’s tariffs and Japan deal could encourage Toyota to move jobs out of U.S.
Over the past few decades, Japan-based automaker Toyota has spent billions of dollars to expand its manufacturing and assembly plants in the United States. T…
#Japan #JP #JapanNews #automobiles #BlueCollar #economics #FreeMarkets #freetrade #imports #Japanese #Japanesenews #news #tariffs #trumpadministration
https://www.alojapan.com/1330507/trumps-tariffs-and-japan-deal-could-encourage-toyota-to-move-jobs-out-of-u-s/
https://www.alojapan.com/1330507/trumps-tariffs-and-japan-deal-could-encourage-toyota-to-move-jobs-out-of-u-s/ Trump’s tariffs and Japan deal could encourage Toyota to move jobs out of U.S. #automobiles #BlueCollar #economics #FreeMarkets #FreeTrade #imports #Japan #JapanNews #Japanese #JapaneseNews #news #tariffs #TrumpAdministration Over the past few decades, Japan-based automaker Toyota has spent billions of dollars to expand its manufacturing and assembly plants in the United States. Those plants now employ over 64,000 people across North Am
US inflation reaches 2.7% as Trump tariffs hit https://www.ft.com/content/65b1fb44-6391-4f74-82db-2d7eb6aaafa9
hmm. latest US report shows inflation is being pushed up by tarrifs. wasn’t inflation to be done on day one???????????????????????????????????????#liars #economicbaffoons #freemarkets
www.ft.comClient Challenge
Trump undermines his own South Korea deal with new 25 percent tariffs https://www.byteseu.com/1174142/ #DonaldTrump #farming #FreeMarkets #FreeTrade #SouthKorea #tariffs #TrumpAdministration
♬ 
“Asked about people putting bumper stickers on their #Teslas declaring they bought it before “Elon was crazy”, Musk said: “There are also people buying it because Elon’s crazy, or however they may view it. Yes, we’ve lost some sales, perhaps, on the left, but we’ve gained them on the right.”
Musk was *visibly shaken* when discussing the #activists’ campaign against him and his cars, saying they were “evil” and on the wrong side of history.
“What’s wrong with these people? *I’ve not harmed anyone*. So, something needs to be done about them. *A number of them are going to prison*, and they deserve it.” Asked whether he took the attacks #personally, he said: “Yes.”
Free market forces in action 
#Smith / #Markets / #FreeMarkets / #competition <https://archive.md/YGhkg> / <https://www.theage.com.au/world/north-america/bruised-and-angry-elon-musk-says-he-will-cut-back-on-political-spending-20250521-p5m0vm.html> (paywall)
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"it's pollution in our lungs & exploitation of people & burning of the planet & degradation of civil society"
Economists refer to these as "externalities"... often not hidden (air pollution in LA is pretty obvious) as much as unaccounted for...
"Externalities often occur when the production or consumption of a product or service's private price equilibrium cannot reflect the true costs or benefits of that product or service for society as a whole.... since resources can be better allocated, externalities are an example of market failure."
#MarketFailure 
is the key concept. So called #FreeMarkets are often incomplete, because not all of the #StakeHolders are at the bargaining table.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Externality
Even the oft quoted-out-of-context "libertarian" economist #FriedrichHayek allowed that there were some areas of economic activity that could not be addressed by free or open markets... #publichealth and #pollution to name just two.
[Graphic is from an article by Patrick Miner et al 2024.]
Continued thread
An explosion, when regulated, becomes an engine. The same is true of markets.
An explosion, unregulated, is a weapon of mass destruction. The same is true of markets.
When Adam Smith talked about "free markets", he meant free of economic rents (paying people to own things), not free of regulation.
How egg prices became the symbol of Poland’s transition to freedom https://www.byteseu.com/932986/ #EasterEgg #eggs #Europe #FreeMarkets #Poland
I guess the question is can capital that wants free trade accept the new tariff approach. Then is there another division in capital that is vying for something even more different.
This is not an endorsement of either just an obervation
#Trump #Tariffs #FreeMarkets
Anyone else notice how quiet the neoliberals have been lately?
For decades, conservative fans of FA Hayek and Milton Friedman have told us that free trade and free markets are their core principles.
That we should let the invisible hand of the market decide.
That any government intervention, no matter how well intended, distorts the markets.
That government intervention in markets is socialism.
That governments shouldn't pick winners.
That taxes are bad.
That if there's a choice between government intervention to stop global warming from fossil fuel pollution or free trade, they'll gladly pick free trade.
Right back to Reagan and Thatcher, they swore these were their core principles.
So.
An American president intervening in markets by imposing arbitrary protectionist tariff taxes should have been a hard no.
A political candidate openly campaigning on doing this should have met stiff opposition from the invisible hand's true believers.
If a true believer in these neoliberal principles (as Rupert Murdoch has claimed to be) owned a news channel (such as Fox News), one would expect outrage at this blatant rejection of free markets and free trade.
So where are all the neoliberal think tanks? Economists? Politicians?
Why the silence?
Our choice is not between free markets and state control, for most adults spend their working lives controlled by a third thing entirely: private government.
https://www.conferencesthatwork.com/index.php/soapbox/2019/05/private-government/
Rage to boycott US products is spreading.
US had voted for #tariffs back in November, which is pretty much the same thing really.
If I were either US #maga or EU #populist, I would advocate for ditching free markets, enrage my electorate base against the others, and perpetuate my position in power.
A win-win situation for US and EU politicians.
The Guardian · ‘I feel utter anger’: From Canada to Europe, a movement to boycott US goods is spreading
Replied in thread
@SharkAttak A chief failure of the profit motive is that it cares not a whit where profit comes from.
If profit derived only from wealth as defined by Adam Smith ("the produce and labour of the nation"), that would be fine.
But profit is in fact an accounting artefact, not an economic one. That bit of equivocation is at the heart of a great deal of the apparent contradictions and fallacies of mainstream economics.
Profit is based on realised costs and revenues, which means that any trick which can be used to lower or offset / externalise costs, and to inflate or capture revenues, is a net gain to the business.
That's why "free market" entrepreneurs are not in fact in favour of free markets where they can secure higher profits by suppressing free markets. Whether that's through dumping toxic waste (physical or informational), fraud, slavery, labour oppression, tax avoidance, quashing or buying competitors, oppressing suppliers, inserting themselves as middlemen in trade (capturing both supplier and consumer surplus), monopolisation, regulatory capture, lobbying, or any of the other abuses.
Markets can be effective, but generally only where there is a balance of power between capital, labour, government, and common weal generally. If you read Smith closely you'll find that he's a champion of small scale commerce, but casts a jaundiced eye on monopolies (he doesn't use that word, but search for "engross" within Wealth and you'll find some mention), and those who can influence the State to their own interests (wool merchants get a call-out).
As best as I've been able to trace, it, the principles of cost accounting in the US were set out by Alexander Hamilton Church (and yes, related to that A.H.), see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Hamilton_Church.
There's a wonderful inquiry into cost accounting by Leo Tolstoy in, I think in What Is To Be Done, (sometimes "What Then Must We Do") a collection of essays: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/What_Is_to_Be_Done%3F_(Tolstoy) https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/leo-tolstoy-what-is-to-be-done.
I'm pretty sure @pluralistic is aware of much of this but AHC may be of interest.
en.wikipedia.orgAlexander Hamilton Church - Wikipedia
western capitalism is just all scams now:
this country only works for large corporations, everything that happens is based on who gets the cash and who doesnt. if you dont have bribe money, you cant compete #FreeMarkets https://montanafreepress.org/2025/03/03/house-lawmaker-resigns-after-bruising-battles-on-vape-bills/
Montana Free Press · House lawmaker resigns after bruising battles on vape bills
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#Bezos said on Wed he would mandate the paper’s #opinions section to focus on supporting #FreeMarkets & #PersonalLiberties, saying those pieces w/opposing views can “be left to be published by others.”
The move was rebuked by current & former #WashingtonPost staffers, though it was praised in a trolling post by #Trump’s WH.
Our choice is not between free markets and state control, for most adults spend their working lives controlled by a third thing entirely: private government.
https://www.conferencesthatwork.com/index.php/soapbox/2019/05/private-government
Continued thread
“These lessons are all the more important now…as ..Trump prepares to reenter the White House.
As we learned from his first term in office, Trump thinks he knows everything about everything...
We are in a lot of trouble.”
As long as the experts of empire “know it all” the world, including USA, has been & is “in a lot of trouble.” With Trump, as with Hitler, no veil of “benevolence.” The only question, How many years of suffering are ahead?