Free Markets (9) - Faith

An economic commentator recently said,

We placed too much trust in the market.

This is now a common view, but the statement is really quite silly.

First of all “the market” does not exist. There is not one market, but millions of different markets. More important, markets cannot think, or act, or respond. We can observe people participating in markets and others organising markets, but the market itself is not personal. Therefore, the idea of trusting in “the market” does not make sense. Trusting in an entity that cannot think or act is foolish.

Those who trust in markets actually trust the people who buy and sell in markets. Some of these will be wise and some will be foolish. Only a naïve person would trust everyone.

A more important problem with this view is that those who were trusting the market will now have to trust something else. Most are suggesting that the government regulate the market. They are replacing faith in the market with faith in the government, but trusting the government is as unwise as trusting the market. Governments are not omniscient and they are not omnipotent. History demonstrates over and over again that governments stuff things up when they intervene in markets. The shift to faith in human government is dangerous.

God is the only one to trust. He is gracious, omniscient and omnipotent. He understands how the economy functions, so he is the only one worthy of trust. Those who are arguing about whether to trust in the market or trust in the government are missing the point. Only God is worthy of trust.