Markets & prices
Four nodes on prices as a coordination mechanism — and the cases where they get it wrong.
Why this track existsMarkets are the most studied human institution. Track B is the minimum viable model — enough to think about whether a given market is doing its job.
The 4-node arc
§ Nodes · in order- B1★
Supply and demand, properly
Not 'two crossing lines.' Supply and demand are two distributions of willingness — to sell, to buy — meeting at a price that clears the most desperate of each. Re-derive it once and you'll never read a price the same way.
● ready6 min - B2★
Price as information
A price compresses millions of distributed decisions into one number. That's its magic. It is also why prices fail when distributed decisions are bad — bubbles, panics, and externalities.
● ready6 min - B3
When markets fail
Externalities, public goods, asymmetric information, market power. The four canonical failure modes. Real-world failures are usually combinations of all four.
● ready6 min - B4
What clears markets when prices can't
Queues, rationing, relationships, status, regulation. Every economy has some markets and some non-market clearing. Knowing which is which prevents a lot of bad arguments.
● ready6 min