Market designers deliberately conflate actual markets with the abstract market

Evidence

Promoting confusion about what markets are supposed to be has become standard operating procedure among market designers. To wit: “In addition to markets, there is also the market, an abstraction as in ‘the market economy’ or ‘the free market’ or ‘the market system.’ The abstract market arises from the interaction of many actual markets” (McMillan, Reinventing the Bazaar, p. 6). — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 2275

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to Mirowski’s core thesis about how economists’ confusions were weaponized during the crisis response. — connects to: Financial pricing formulas actively construct the markets they purport to measure — Max Haiven, Cultures of Financialization, 84; Modern financial markets are deliberately designed entities — Donald MacKenzie, An Engine, Not a Camera: How Financial…, 1235; Markets are human creations amenable to redesign, not natural forces — Donald MacKenzie, An Engine, Not a Camera: How Financial…, 1237 (+4 more)

Broader Connections

• Economic theory succeeded in derivatives markets partly by making markets conform to it #exemplifies (0.80) — Donald MacKenzie & Yuval Millo, Constructing a Market, Performing Theory, 9
• Market designers positioned themselves as correcting markets’ information-aggregation flaws for common-value assets. #qualifies (0.78) — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 857
• The discovery-then-acceptance narrative misdescribes how financial economics shaped markets #expands (0.75) — Donald MacKenzie, An Engine, Not a Camera, 386
• Market designers could not agree how auction rule changes affect performance #responds-to (0.72) — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 859