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[...] Polanyi has been rediscovered by critics of capitalism in recent years for two principal reasons. The first is his argument that capitalism only developed via the evolution of three "fictious commodities"--things that it must pretend are produced for sale on the market, but are not: land, lab…

[...] If wages were sufficiently flexible to clear all labour markets, then all firms would pay the same wage for the same work, and all workers could find work (the definition of market clearing). From a worker's perspective, quitting would be virtually costless. From an employer's perspective, co…

[...] in capitalism the realms of market and the firm are in fact necessary complements. There is choice regarding markets and hierarchies because both are essential to capitalist relations of production, distribution, and consumption. [...] the capitalist firm is a response to the information, coo…

[...] there are situations in which they don't seem to work all that well--and not merely relative to the perfection some assume they should attain, but even relative to suitably diminished "real-world" expectations. Economists call these "market failures," and perhaps the most commonly noted is th…

[...] The common claim that economics is evil because it "quantifies" everything is a weak and distracting argument; too many radical critics give it too much emphasis. It is hard to imagine that whatever world anticapitalism produces will not require lots of "quantitative" analysis. The very notio…