The Market

From Lessig Wiki

Must reads

• John Williams' Shadowing Reality Shadow Government Statistics Analysis Behind and Beyond Government Economic Reporting
• Lester C. Thurow, The Zero Sum Society
• Denialism Blog Detailing the employment of rhetorical tactics to give the appearance of argument or legitimate debate, when in actuality there is no good faith attempt at engaging in dialogue
• John Kenneth Galbraith, Economics and the Public Purpose
• Hernando de Soto, The Mystery of Capital; The Other Path -- Discuss rationalizing economic systems in a way the eliminates corruption
• Graham Hancock - The Lords of Poverty: The Power, Prestige, and Corruption of the International Aid Business
• William Easterly - The Elusive Quest for Growth: Economists' Adventures and Misadventures in the Tropics
• Paul Collier's The Bottom Billion: Why the Poorest Countries Are Failing and What Can Be Done About It -- along the lines of anti-corruption = pro-transparency + accountability -- "Imagine PricewaterhouseCoopers auditing the copper revenues of Zambia and issuing a public report."
• J. Bradford DeLong's The Corporation as a Command Economy -- "That our economy is populated by large corporations shapes how we live. Our social being cannot but be shaped by the one-third of our waking lives spent at work. Our politics would be very different without corporations both as sources of pressure an influence on politicians and as intermediaries serving the purposes of politicians."
• "The Cluetrain Manifesto" by Weinberger, et. al. I'm not sure how much help this would be regarding corruption. It's all about markets. But it's not about economics (money). Anyway, it's free and perhaps there's some clues.
• George Stigler, 'The Theory of Economic Regulation', The Bell Journal of Economics and Management Science, Vol. 2, No. 1 (Spring, 1971), pp. 3-21. See also

[1] and [2]

• Oligopoly Watch Blog is a fascinating exploration and record of how oligopolies behave, particularly how they try to control their competitive landscape.
• An interview with Vandana Shiva, Indian physicist, organic farmer and author. Discussing the Earth Democracy movement, Shiva links the problems currently seen in democracy with the effects of globalization—money and power, absolutely linked, are no longer in the hands of people or their local governments.

Please research

• Politics and the free market are intertwined. Research should be performed to determine how the free market is corrupted by the most powerful entities within it. Either through influencing the government or by using their wealth and power to prevent competition and/or maximize profits at the expense of the consumer/tax payer.
• Research should be performed to determine if punishments enacted upon corporations are just. Whenever a government entity imposes a fine on a corporation that corporation will pass the costs on to their customers. So in effect, fining misbehaving businesses is really a proxy fine levied upon tax payers. In a market where there exists loads of competition a fine may be an effective measure but it is unlikely. More research needs to be done in this area to determine what would benefit the public the most when businesses break the law or act against the public interest.
• Regarding "denialism:" going beyond money, it's worth researching corruption of rhetoric and argumentation. That is, the money itself corrupts, but it also creates a welcoming environment for bogus arguments; a willingness to accept fallacious arguments in support of monied interests, if you will. It would be interesting to evaluate the economics arguments employed in political situations, because the public dialogue is filled with simplistic, econ 101 ideas. I think these ideas flourish only because they are in support of major financial interests.

Corruption in Action

• By Dan Morgan, Sarah Cohen and Gilbert M. Gaul, Dairy Industry Crushed Innovator Who Bested Price-Control System, Washington Post, December 10, 2006

• Eric M. Jackson, The PayPal Wars: Battles with eBay, the Media, the Mafia, and the Rest of Planet Earth, World Ahead Publishing, 2004.

• The incestuous relationship between real estate developers and local government officials is certainly an example of corruption. No specific work to cite, but Kelo v. New London is obviously a good example of the interests of ordinary citizens being shoved aside for the interests of large corporations.

• Tim Carney, The Big Ripoff: How Big Business and Big Government Steal Your Money has some good examples of corruption.

• James Bovard, Archer Daniels Midland: A Case Study In Corporate Welfare, Cato Institute, 1995. "...every $1 of profits earned by ADM's corn sweetener operation costs consumers $10, and every $1 of profits earned by its ethanol operation costs taxpayers $30."

• 2008-03-04 User:Woozle/soft drink hard sell: A Pepsico distributor uses monetary incentive to keep out smaller competition (non-governmental Lessigian corruption), depriving customers of their rightful Dr. Pepper; Woozle proposes a meta-solution.

• 2008-03-01 My Forbidden Fruits (and Vegetables): how legislation is designed to keep the local food movement from catching on. "Why? Because national fruit and vegetable growers based in California, Florida and Texas fear competition from regional producers like myself. Through their control of Congressional delegations from those states, they have been able to virtually monopolize the country’s fresh produce markets."