[ExI] EP and Peak oil

[Lee Corbin]

My apologies for replying rather too hastily to Damien with
regard to his question.

>>> Have there ever been *any* worrying situations in history,
>>> Lee, where a free market has failed to deal with them
>>> triumphantly?

To which I replied

> Certainly.  Many, many.  The free market has had little effect
> on deliberate invasions or plagues, for instance. Thomas Sowell
> describes economics as "study of the use of scarce resources
> which have alternative uses". No one has ever found a better
> way than the free market, even in war time, to distribute scarce
> resources which have alternate uses. 

But I may have mistakenly given the impression that capitalism
always works best when it's completely unregulated. I don't believe
that to be the case.

For example, the most efficient means of capital formation in
western civilization appears to be the development of the limited
liability corporation.  Unfortunately, without supervision from 
some sovereign state (you see, I hate to the use the "g---" word),
company managers take advantage of stock holders to such an
extent that sooner or later funds dry up, thus retarding economic
growth.  Institutions such as the SEC are therefore necessary,
so far as I have been able to determine.

I believe that there are other examples in American and European
history where governments have significantly contributed to economic
growth, even though almost all of their well-intentioned efforts (like
the current fiasco of burning corn for fuel) hurt a lot more than they
help.

Lee