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There is now a CONTENT FREEZE for Mercury while we switch to a new platform. It began on Friday, March 10 at 6pm and will end on Wednesday, March 15 at noon. No new content can be created during this time, but all material in the system as of the beginning of the freeze will be migrated to the new platform, including users and groups. Functionally the new site is identical to the old one. webteam@gatech.edu
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The founding principle of free-market economics is that markets are "efficient" all by themselves. That is, they allocate goods and services in a way that maximizes benefits and minimizes costs, without the need for government intervention.
However, it turns out this is only partly true. In reality, a market allocation is only truly efficient if several important conditions are met, and no market exists that meets all of them.
We'll talk about what those conditions are, with examples of when each of them breaks down. And, we'll explain why such failures of markets to achieve efficiency justifies regulation and government intervention, even in a free-market economy.
