I hardly need to convince anybody on these boards about my knowledge of economics, but I sure don’t need to waste my time with some hayseed telling me about supply and demand. In a completely free (and totally nonexistent) market, speculation might act to stabilize prices. In the real world, the one with the birds and the light and the air and stuff, speculators destabilize such markets, or at least elevate prices and create disequilibria. If you want to talk a free market, you need to get on a plane and talk to a guy who looks like he stole the tablecloth from Pizza Hut as headgear. I’m talking about what is, not what could ideally be.
“In a completely free (and totally nonexistent) market, speculation might act to stabilize prices. In the real world, the one with the birds and the light and the air and stuff, speculators destabilize such markets, or at least elevate prices and create disequilibria.”
Not to get into economic theory too much (because you’re too much of a realist for it, though apparently are also a master of it), but who ever said prices are supposed to be stable? Heck, I always figured that stuff about equilibrium was a model to contrast with reality, to show people what markets are aiming for, rather than arriving at. I also always figured that the better way to shoot for your dreams and get to equilibrium was not to pursue stability, but rather its opposite: an endless process of trial-and-error.