In a way, the theory of supply and demand explains prices. But in another, more accurate way, bargaining theory explains prices.  The idea that the prices of commodities are determined by the bargaining power of the buying and selling parties is not new, having been raised in the nineteenth century, but it does not play…

Joseph Parampathu. Echonomy, Evolution, and Echology, February 4, 2023. Рынки со свободным потоком информации помогают определить относительные цены. Но этот процесс довольно трудно заметить на обманчивом или неполном рынке. Мюррей Букчин сетует на утрату «моральной экономики» как отражение потери гражданской активности и утраты нашего пути в погоне за гомогенизированным глобальным рынком, рассчитанным на самые паршивые…

Por Joseph Parampathu. Artículo original: Economy, Evolution, and Ecology, del 4 de febrero de 2023. Traducción al español por Camila Figueroa. Los mercados con libre flujo de información ayudan a determinar los precios relativos. Pero este efecto puede ser difícil de observar en un mercado engañoso o escaso. Murray Bookchin lamenta la pérdida de la…

Di Joseph Parampathu. Originale: Economy, Evolution and Ecology, pubblicato il 4 febbraio 2023. Traduzione italiana di Enrico Sanna. Nel mercato, il libero flusso delle informazioni aiuta a determinare i prezzi. Un effetto difficilmente osservabile in un mercato nero o diffuso nello spazio. Murray Bookchin vede nella perdita di una “economia etica” il riflesso di una…

Markets with free information flow help determine relative prices. But this effect can be difficult to observe in a deceptive or sparse marketplace. Murray Bookchin laments the loss of the “moral economy” as a reflection of losing the civic space and of losing our way in the chase for a homogenized global market catering to…

Emmi Bevensee’s article “Social-Anarchism and Parallel Economic Computation” is an excellent and important introduction to the challenges that complexity poses for economic planning. I think Emmi’s conclusion—that we need to sketch what the limits of planning are and pursue alternative mechanisms beyond this point—is a good one, as is pointing out that problems arise when…

A tweet jokingly showing James C. Scott centrally planning his small chicken farm.  Even in his devastating critiques of high-modernist central planning, James C Scott acknowledges the benefits to planning and the levels at which it can occur with relative safety. The author M Black also challenges us not to fetishize decentralization in such a…

In 1939, Leonid Kantorovich, a Soviet mathematician, came up with a formulation for optimization problems called linear programming (LP) after being tasked with planning production in the plywood industry during World War 2. A linear program is a constrained optimization problem with a linear objective function that is maximized or minimized subject to linear equality…

Di Matin Pedram. Originale: Mises Can Teach Us to Solve the Shortages: A Case for Coronavirus, pubblicato il 30 marzo 2020. Traduzione di Enrico Sanna. Lo stato può impiegare diversi sistemi per controllare il mercato e mantenere l’equilibrio. Il più noto è il controllo dei prezzi(1), accompagnato dalla punizione dei trasgressori ad opera delle forze…

Governments have various ways to control the markets and attempt to preserve equilibrium. The most familiar one is price-fixing1 and punishing the infringers by reliance on governments’ forces. The rationale behind this is that governments will allocate resources to the best interest of the community and, as they have authority, they can easily mobilize the…

Trust is the backbone of not just economies, but also the social fabric more broadly. With it, new worlds are possible, and without it, collapse is inevitable. Trust is built on dynamic and complexly layered reputations. We each have our own methods of building trust, and different communities have their own systems for developing reputation….

Let me begin by saying that I’m glad this book exists. Phillips and Rozworski are upfront about their book not containing any radical new insights into questions of economic planning, but instead they compile arguments made by others in a highly readable format, something that those on the left who argue for economic planning have…