Arnold Kling    Market Failure  See Us in Concert... Evil
Shortage: Why the Evil Em...  I want to propose a new definition
of market failure. For me, market failure exists to the extent
that innovation is blocked by incumbents. If innovators can
succeed by out-competing incumbents, then the market is working.
If incumbents have a self-reinforcing system that keeps out
innovators, then we have market failure.  This post ties
together a couple of recent bitter themes. It is not intended in
any way to persuade people who disagree with me (if you disagree
with me, you may just want to skip the post). It is simply a
grand unified theory of my bitterness.  First, why am I bitter
about Jonathan Gruber? I am bitter because in my view he has
received funding and accolades far out of proportion to his
skills. He is being treated as a supreme authority. In theory,
that is because his skills are exceptional. Instead, I suspect
that, on the contrary, his success has less to do with how he
uses his critical thinking functi