Technical ‘efficiency’ carries ordinary positive connotations that lend markets unwarranted legitimacy
Evidence
“Efficient,” in the sense in which the term is used in financial economics, does not equate to “desirable”: one could, for example, imagine a market in human kidneys that was efficient in the speed with which prices incorporate available information, but that does not imply that it would be good to construct such a market. Nevertheless, that our wider culture’s most authoritative source of knowledge of markets has declared financial markets to be “efficient” a word with almost entirely positive connotations in ordinary speech has surely been of some importance. — Donald MacKenzie, An Engine, Not a Camera, 1133
Categorization
- XREF: Echoes the beta passage — a technical term whose ordinary connotations mislead — and connects to the reader’s work on how financialization legitimates markets culturally. — connects to: Efficient-market theory undercut the professional credibility it seemingly supported. — Donald MacKenzie, An Engine, Not a Camera: How Financial…, 350; Efficiency is treated as uncontestable truth rather than a contestable value — David Theo Goldberg, The Racial State, 121; Efficient market theory could not imagine internally-generated systemic crisis — Mark Blyth, Austerity: The History of a Dangerous…, 130 (+5 more)
- DEEPTHINKING: The kidney-market example cleanly separates descriptive efficiency from moral desirability, exposing how a technical term smuggles approval into market discourse — a subtle point that rewards sitting with it.
Broader Connections
- Efficiency is treated as uncontestable truth rather than a contestable value
#corroborates(0.92) — David Theo Goldberg, The Racial State, 121 - The efficient-markets hypothesis erased discussion of bubbles and speculation
#expands(0.85) — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 749 - The efficient-markets hypothesis simultaneously justifies state failure and enabled the financial crisis
#expands(0.85) — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 150 - Efficient market theory could not imagine internally-generated systemic crisis
#expands(0.80) — Mark Blyth, Austerity, 130 - The efficient market hypothesis survived every empirical refutation and became finance orthodoxy
#expands(0.80) — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 758 - Market speculation functions as secular prophecy sustaining public faith in finance
#corroborates(0.75) — Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou, Speculative Communities, 227 - Efficient-markets and random-walk theory legitimized options against their scandalous reputation.
#expands(0.75) — Donald MacKenzie & Yuval Millo, Constructing a Market, Performing Theory, 62