Uploaded May 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 days ago
When markets go awry, who is to blame? Some blame greedy profiteers, whilst others blame governments for tinkering with incentives and supply chains. Where does the truth lie? And what role should the government play when markets go wrong?
Professor David Friedman is a physicist, leading free-market economist and Professor Emeritus of law at Santa Clara University. The son of Nobel Prize-winning economist Milton Friedman, David has authored many textbooks on free-market and libertarian theory. In 1973, he published The Machinery of Freedom, which has been ranked by Liberty magazine as one of the "Top Ten Best Libertarian Books" of all time.
TIMESTAMPS
0:00 - Intro
01:00 - What is a market failure?
02:44 - Restaurant analogy
04:15 - Negative externalities
05:00 - Positive externalities
05:50 - Malls
6:55 - Radio
7:40 - Price System
8:48 - Why most economists aren't libertarians?
9:26 - Government action is a political market
12:30 - Secure property rights for future benefits
15:27 - Stalin
16:15 - Military examples
18:20 - Teaching
19:47 - Desert example
20:55 - Conclusion
22:19 - End
When markets go awry, who is to blame? Some blame greedy profiteers, whilst others blame governments for tinkering with incentives and supply chains. Where does the truth lie? And what role should the government play when markets go wrong?
Professor David Friedman is a physicist, leading free-market economist and Professor Emeritus of law at Santa Clara University. The son of Nobel Prize-winning economist Milton Friedman, David has authored many textbooks on free-market and libertarian theory. In 1973, he published The Machinery of Freedom, which has been ranked by Liberty magazine as one of the "Top Ten Best Libertarian Books" of all time.
TIMESTAMPS
0:00 - Intro
01:00 - What is a market failure?
02:44 - Restaurant analogy
04:15 - Negative externalities
05:00 - Positive externalities
05:50 - Malls
6:55 - Radio
7:40 - Price System
8:48 - Why most economists aren't libertarians?
9:26 - Government action is a political market
12:30 - Secure property rights for future benefits
15:27 - Stalin
16:15 - Military examples
18:20 - Teaching
19:47 - Desert example
20:55 - Conclusion
22:19 - End
