The Best Book on the Market How to stop worrying and love the free economy

by Butler, Eamonn

• ISBN13: 9781906465056
• ISBN10: 1906465053
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2008-06-23
• Publisher: Capstone

Summary

The free market makes the world go around. Maybe it's time we all tried to understand it a little better. Luckily Eamonn Butler is the ideal teacher to get us all up to speed.Markets are everywhere. But how many of us understand how they work, and why? What does a 'free market' really mean? Do free markets actually exist? Should we have more or less of them? Most of all - do we really need to know all this? Answer: Yes we do.MAKING ECONOMICS SIMPLE SO THAT EVEN POLITICIANS CAN UNDERSTAND ITIf any mention of free markets sends your mind screaming back to your musty old school economics textbook, think again. The Best Book on the Market will keep you gripped, intrigued and well informed. Abandoning complicated mumbo-jumbo, Eamonn Butler, Director of the UK's leading free market think-tank, demystifies the world of markets, competition, monopolies and cartels, prices and overspills. Using examples from our everyday lives Dr Butler explains how the markets we have, and the many more we need, can work to create a richer, freer and more peaceful world.STOP WORRYING AND LOVE THE FREE ECONOMYHe delves into the morality of markets and interrogates important issues such as why feckless rock-stars are paid much more than worthy nurses; whether we should worry about people trading in arms, water, healthcare etc; whether black markets are immoral; and questions of equality; sweatshops, and fair trade."This book is about the free market and how unfree it can be when there is a lack of belief in freedom itself. Eamonn Butler presents solid arguments against government attempts to 'perfect' the markets by regulation, controls, subsidies, or by adopting measures which obstruct competition and private ownership."Vfclav Klaus, President of the Czech Republic"Vividly and simply explains competition, entrepreneurship and prices".John Blundell, Director, Institute of Economic Affairs"A great little book that gets to the heart of how and why markets work, in a very engaging and easily understood way".Dan Lewis, Research Director, Economic Research Council"I welcome this witty, lucid explanation of how entrepreneurs and business people make a positive contribution to our lives, and why economists often don't".Andrew Neil , leading journalist and BBC presenter"Anything which educates the public - and politicians - on how the free economy actually works is always welcome. Dr Butler does this in style".Lord Lawson, former UK Chancellor of the Exchequer"Everyone in business would do well to understand the basic principles of markets which Dr Butler clarifies so well in this short book".Allister Heath, Editor of The Business and Associate Editor of The Spectator"This book does great justice to the vibrancy of markets and what makes them tick"Ruth Richardson, former Finance Minister of New Zealand"It's refreshing to see an economist who understands the importance of innovation and entrepreneurship in pushing progress forward, and who can explain it in straightforward language."Trevor Baylis OBE (inventor of the wind-up radio)"I'm glad to see that Dr Butler stresses the role of innovators - and the importance of market structures that encourage innovation."Sir Clive Sinclair (inventor)"Dr Butler's book is a welcome and very readable contribution on the mechanisms and morality of the free economy."Sir John Major KG CH (former UK Prime Minister)"'Market' is one of the first six-letter words that every English-speaking child learns: as in 'Thi

Author Biography

If anyone can explain how markets work, it's Dr Eamonn Butler. As director of the Influential UK think-tank, the Adam Smith Institute, he has spent three decades privatizing state industries, reforming public administrations and instructing government leaders around the world on market economics. He is the doyen of Britain's free-market policy analysts, and led the initiative to build a world monument to the pioneering Scottish economist, Adam Smith, in Edinburgh.

With degrees in Economics, Psychology and Philosophy from St Andrews University, Dr Butler is superbly qualified on the mechanics, mentality and morals of markets. He is a board member of the Mont Pelerin Society, the distinguished international association of free-market economists and activist founded in 1947. He has won the Freedoms Foundation  deal and is advisor to a number of international economic-policy bodies.

Dr Butler's highly readable introductions to free-market thinkers including Adam Smith, Ludwig von Mises, and Nobel economists F A Hayek and Milton Friedman have won wide acclaim and been translated into many languages. He is also the author of several books on IQ testing (with Dr Madsen Pirie) and of Forty Centuries of Wage and Price Controls (with Robert L Schuettinger).

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements	p. xi
The amazing world of markets	p. 1
A trip to the market	p. 2
No words, but mutual benefit	p. 3
Markets are everywhere	p. 5
Nobody's perfect	p. 6
Time, place and trust	p. 7
Who? What? Where? Why?	p. 8
Unorganized order	p. 10
Markets are a force for good	p. 11
Getting resources to their best use	p. 12
How specialization and exchange make us rich	p. 15
Markets weren't born yesterday	p. 16
Money makes the world go round oblong	p. 17
Exchange is natural	p. 19
Why we exchange so much	p. 20
Collaboration through ... disagreement	p. 22
Specialization and efficiency	p. 24
The huge productive power of specialization	p. 26
Specialization makes you slicker	p. 28
Capital accumulation	p. 29
The spiralling success of specialization	p. 30
The instant messaging system of price	p. 33
Price is an instruction as well as a fact	p. 35
Buyers, sellers and market prices	p. 37
X marks the (perfect) spot	p. 37
Now the bad news	p. 39
The impossibility of perfect information	p. 39
The market is a discovery process	p. 41
Help me, information	p. 43
The instant messaging of price	p. 44
Our unintended genius	p. 45
Price eliminates waste	p. 46
Markets are only human	p. 47
It's hard to find good stuff	p. 49
The costs of doing a deal	p. 50
Killing the messenger	p. 53
Zen and the art of price maintenance	p. 54
Soldering up the price mechanism	p. 55
Wage and price controls	p. 56
Controls mess up the market	p. 58
Distorting price through subsidy	p. 59
That ol' black market	p. 60
Inflation	p. 63
I get high prices (with a little help from the state)	p. 64
Patents and copyright	p. 65
Occupational licensure: then ...	p. 66
... and now	p. 68
The driving force of competition	p. 71
Keeping it in the family	p. 72
The joy of voluntary exchange	p. 72
Competition spreads the benefit	p. 74
Competition on quality	p. 76
Why prices aren't uniform	p. 77
Imperfect information and prices	p. 79
How speculators benefit society	p. 80
Why markets need entrepreneurs	p. 81
Creative destruction	p. 83
Perfect nonsense	p. 85
The rules of the market	p. 87
Honesty really is the best policy	p. 88
Exchange is built on trust	p. 89
Brands communicate trust	p. 90
Longevity, solidity and endorsement	p. 92
In God we trust - others pay cash	p. 93
Setting and enforcing the rules	p. 94
The unwritten rules	p. 95
Property includes human effort	p. 96
Property security is vital to markets	p. 97
Property rights are determined by law and convention	p. 99
The choice of rules determines the outcome	p. 100
The design of auctions	p. 101
Markets don't just happen	p. 103
Market failure (and government failure)	p. 105
Bubbles, booms, downturns and depressions	p. 106
Markets struggle with human psychology	p. 106
Time and speed	p. 108
Information asymmetry	p. 110
Political failure	p. 111
The inconvenient reality	p. 113
A market in emissions	p. 116
A price on congestion	p. 116
Water rights	p. 117
Tradable fishing rights	p. 120
Over-fishing	p. 121
A shooting market saves game	p. 122
The morality of the market	p. 125
Harnessing self-interest	p. 127
Self-interest and greed	p. 128
Harmony versus politics	p. 129
Unfairness and inequality	p. 131
Trafficking and exploitation	p. 133
The domination of big business	p. 134
Limits to market domination	p. 136
The moral superiority of markets	p. 137
How to grow a market	p. 139
Economic achievement gets real	p. 140
The triumph of the market?	p. 141
Handbagging the state	p. 143
Recipe for a successful market	p. 145
Growing markets over the net	p. 148
The question of online trust	p. 149
The slow growth of the market in China	p. 151
The only real way to wealth	p. 152
Index	p. 155
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