Market Intervention

Contents

Market intervention consists of the interference with the natural process of exchange. Intervention comes mostly from government. It leads to less efficient allocation of economic resources and the loss of liberty.

To understand the nature of exchanges in the modern world we must take into account the many forms of intervention. Violent intervention has become so pervasive that we must consider it in the background of every question about the process of exchange. We must ask, "Would we see a different—and arguably better—result without a specific intervention."

In this section we pick up our discussion of exchange—started in the first section, but with an eye toward how interventions affect those exchanges.

Intervention of the Federal Government

The Federal Government intervenes in markets whenever legislators and bureaucrats want to gain more power. We pay for it.

State & Local Intervention

Although state and local governments operate closer to the voter, they still have a tendency to intevene in market activity.

Monetary Intervention

Monetary intervention represents one of the more sinister influences on a market economy. Interference in the money supply cause distortions in money prices the laying false information to economic actors.

Economic Crises

Today's crises arise from yesterday's solutions. When examined closely we find that nearly all economic "crises" occur as the result of previous solutions to "problems" in markets.