Saturday, October 08, 2011 How I tracked down The Market By Dr. Gal Noir* http://neweconomicperspectives.blogspot.com/2011/10/how-i-tracked-down-marke... Partial text below I have been working as an undercover investigator of hijacked economic truths for many years. It doesn’t pay much, I work long hours, but I sleep well at night. It is the nagging questions that help me get up in the morning and do what I do. What is the economy for? Where has the middle class gone? Why have manufacturing jobs fled the US? Why is CEO-to-worker pay ratio 471:1 in the US, while it is only 20:1 in Canada? Why haven’t we wiped out unemployment once and for all? No, really. Permanently! Why do we have child hunger, mass poverty, and stunning income inequality in the richest country in the world? And everywhere I turn, I keep getting the same answers: “Because The Market said so! Because this is how The Market works. Because these are the laws of The Market.” After years of hearing about The Market, I had one simple question: Who. Is. The Market? Has anyone seen him? Has anyone talked to him? Gotten answers? Maybe asked him to change his ways? I cannot think of a single journalist, economists, or policy maker who has interviewed The Market. And then I knew…this was only a job only for Dr. Gal Noir. I wanted to hear more about The Market’s rationale for what seemed to be very disturbing developments. I wouldn’t normally investigate questions that are only of interest to me, but it turns out that The 99% have been asking the same questions too. Of course, we all know who The 99% are. Here are their stories and their faces. But no one seems to know exactly who The Market is! I kept hearing that if governments tried to regulate consumer products like home mortgages, credit cards, grocery food, children’s toys, etc… they will invariably injure The Market by interfering with his operations. So I wondered. What does The Market do? Is his work more sacred than mine or yours? Is his health more important than ours? Is his business so vital that he should never be disturbed? Perhaps I could find answers to these questions if I understood what The Market was for. What he was trying to do. What purpose did he serve? How did he work to achieve his goals? I figured that if I found him, I could interrupt him for just a little bit to ask him some questions. I meant no harm and I surely didn’t wish to injure him. A short little interview never hurt anybody, right? (continued at http://neweconomicperspectives.blogspot.com/2011/10/how-i-tracked-down-marke...