Fundamentally, I think you're arguing that liberty begins and ends with autonomy, which is inherently a local thing. No market can be a "free market" if it depends on the coordination of far-flung resources by a middle-man, as the middle-man will of necessity become the top-dog. All financialization ultimately boils down to creating a middle-man, an intermediary between market participants and what they seek to acquire. Whether the commodity in question is money or food, the middle-man can create gluts and shortages at will, and does so to further his own self-interest.An important point that economist Steve Keen has made about mainstream economics is that it models our economy as if there was no money, as if we were merely bartering. He makes this point most forcefully here, but you should consider a more undertaking a more complete treatment of the topic in his book, Debunking Economics, most of which you can find in a much more complete but less cogent form here.
In the movie (but not the book) The Wizard of Oz, Dorothy was admonished to ignore the man behind the curtain. In modern economics, we're all implored to ignore the man between us and what we want.
And, sadly, we comply.
FYI -- I likely will have a burst of activity over the next week as I will be on vacation with my family. Be warned, though, I'm trying to find a way to work blogging into my daily life while not distracting from the many other things I want to accomplish. This inherently means that I'm going to be throwing a lot of seemingly half-formed things out there for consumption. Trust me, though, I don't throw out half-formed ideas, only half-formed expressions of them. Challenge me. Question me. I'll respond.
Comments have been acting up lately (Russ, Mr. Falberg and I have all had problems), so feel free to contact me directly at taojonesing@gmail.com
