Re: On Randy Groves big points

John,

I think you are mystifying markets. The word "invent" simply means to
originate, create, or produce. The act of "inventing" is to construct a
new, useful process that did not exist previously. A market at its most
basic level, i.e., a meeting of people (at least two) to exchange
commodities, originates when two or more people arrange some terms of
exchange. The concrete forms market exchanges take are highly variable,
but in every instance they were at some point in time invented by human
beings. Of course it is true that many/most people exchange in markets
they had no part in inventing. 

If you are trying to capture the emergent quality of collective human
activity when you use the word "spontaneous" then I would agree with you.
But as your formulation stands it ignores/denies the central role of human
agency in the creation and furtherance of markets. You have markets coming
about "naturally," as a spider builds her web. This is a mystification.

Andy Austin