Liberty Alone

One of the criticisms of criticisms of attacks on supermarkets like Iain Dale’s recent missive is that a free market doesn’t exist because supermarkets have so much purchasing power.

This is definitely not the case and appears to be based upon a misunderstanding of economic freedom. A free market is one in which there is no governmental interference. Just as free trade is trade with no governmental interference. The market may not be free, but that is not because supermarkets have a lot of buying power, that does not matter at all in terms of the freeness of the market (unless that power is granted them by government action).

In the case of agriculture, the market is not free due to subsidy, tariffs and regulation imposed by government. The exchange between the producer and the purchaser however is non-coercive for products which are allowed to be exchanged. There are not (to my knowledge) any price controls involved.
The supermarket’s side is also not free, there are regulations, the planning bureaucracy and so-called competition rules.

So no, we don’t have a totally free market, I’ll agree with that, but the exchange is free and is not coerced.

Of course, a free market may not produce outcomes which you approve of. For example, you may disapprove of certain crops being grown or animals being reared, but if there is demand then they will be grown. You may think that prices are in some way unfair (although that is not a valid reason for intervention since fairness is unmeasurable and one person’s fair is another’s unfair). Objections to the outcomes of a free market do not mean that the market is not free however. Then again, in matters of individual preference who are you to enforce your preference on all others?

It may be that a free market would not mirror the idealised free market (isn’t that the main reason intervention is justified?) and that is a reasonable argument to make, but an entirely different argument.

The 2007 Index has been published and it is generally good news.
Economic freedom has fallen slightly, but is still the second highest ever, but a new system is being used to measure which include labour freedom for the first time which may affect the results.
The UK comes in at number 6 and Ireland at number 7 at the tail end of the ‘free’ countries and the highest ranked in Europe (Hong Kong keeps the top spot again with its near neighbours Australia, Singapore and New Zealand all doing very well).

Over the world, the general trend is still towards greater freedom and the regions are increasing at about the same rate. There is increased wealth and a decrease in poverty and inequality across the globe. This is the achievement of poverty reduction ever,

There is more evidence that increased economic freedom increases wealth whatever your starting point, and that globalisation is not harming the world’s poor as many claim.

There is a need to be cautious - the new US congress is much more protectionist and illiberal on economic terms and the Doha round is deadlocked over the CAP and other farm subsidies. There is still a possibility of a reversal in the trend towards freedom, but overall I am cautiously optimistic.