A market in assets (better known as a stock exchange) fails when the price of the asset falls below the level at which the asset-holder is able to keep the asset out of the market. In such a circumstance, mark-to-market leads to insolvency, foreclosure, forced trades, and the resulting collapse of the price as the falling price cascades more forced trades into the marketplace until there are only sellers and no buyers.
This market failure is as true for financial stocks as it is for the stocks of labor as it is for the stocks of natural resources in an environment. Markets in assets can work only in a population that is sufficiently well endowed that they can weather price fluctuations without being forced into the market by short term conditions of impoverishment.
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