Re: [tlug] Open-source Japan

[Curt Sampson <cjs@example.com>]

On 2009-03-04 13:27 +0900 (Wed), Stephen J. Turnbull wrote:

> Curt Sampson writes:
>
>  > Free markets are great, when everybody has good information.
> 
> No.  When everybody has good information, markets (let alone free
> ones) are unnecessary.  It's only because information is scarce that
> markets are useful.

I certainly didn't formulate my thought correctly. Basically, markets
are a way of exchanging information and products (which themselves may
be information, of course), right?

So what I guess I'm trying to say, is that in a good market (i.e., one
that contributes to economic growth, encourages people to trade, etc.),
you can get trustworthy information about just what you're buying. In a
bad market, you can't.

Take the example of stock exchanges. The NYSE is, in many ways, very
trustworthy. Companies are required to report fairly truthfully about
their financial situation and what they are doing, and there are
penalties if they don't. It's one of the most popular markets in the
world, and a lot of business is done there.

The Vancouver Stock Exchange, on the other hand, has less stringent
requirements, and they're not enforced nearly as well. That's why it
sees so much less activity, and contributes so much less to the economy.
People tend to be much more reluctant to buy there than on the NYSE
because of the unreliability of the information and consequent number of
scams, and thus it's also a much worse place to go to raise capital.

Do you see what I'm getting at here?

cjs
-- 
Curt Sampson       <cjs@example.com>        +81 90 7737 2974
           Functional programming in all senses of the word:
                   http://www.starling-software.com