A poem accompanied by a charming animation film on the miracle of the invisible hand that steers market interactions, made by Stanford economist Russ Roberts. On the site that was made to accompany the film (www.wonderfulloaf.org) Roberts gives a short introduction on the topic. A fragment:
“The variety and availability and the pattern of prices emerges from the interactions of the enormous number of people who want to eat bread or bake it, along with the multitude of people who use flour for some other purpose or who are allergic to gluten, or who want trucks to deliver pizza rather than bread and so on. Somehow, the actions of all these people fit together even though no one actor in this economic drama is in control. Day after day, the drama unfolds without a director or a script. […] there are many results where a top-down approach is necessary to achieve a desired outcome. Think of national defense or pollution control for example. But that uncoordinated specialization and cooperation can emerge to satisfy the hunger of millions without centralized control has been a source of wonder going back to at least Adam Smith and his contemporaries.”
He also provides further resources for those who want to know more on the topic, including articles, videos and podcast: http://wonderfulloaf.org/resources. Plus a number of questions to check your own understanding of market mechanisms and discuss it further. Here is one:
“The beginning of the poem asks the question–who takes care of me and you? What is my answer? Does this answer comfort you or disturb you? Why?”
