I think the answer is “yes,” and that this becomes apparent if we understand the Darwinian character of competition, though this is not to suggest that competition invariably, or even typically, leads to corrupt behavior. There are many analogies between biological evolution and commercial markets, and as a result words like “competition” and “equilibrium” are important both in evolutionary biology and in economics. In an article published in 1950 the economist Armen Alchian argued that standard economic results could be predicted as products of a struggle for survival among competitors, without need to assume conscious profit maximization by any of... | Continue »

With the collapse of British socialism and Soviet (and satellite) communism, and the rapid economic growth of countries like China and India when they took significant steps toward a free-market economy, it seemed that capitalism had triumphed. But today, in the wake of the financial collapse of 2008 and the ensuing worldwide economic downturn, there are a growing number of doubters. As Becker points out, and as I have pointed out in my writings on the economic crisis of the past three and a half years, a combination of unsound monetary policy and regulatory laxity (nourished by the complacency of... | Continue »