The Visible and the invisible

Ed Zhang (‘ex-pat’) posts on China Daily HERE  “Likonomics: the way ahead” [refering to: China’s Premier Li Keqiang]

“If it proves workable, it may be seen as a mini-crisis on a controlled scale, engineered by the government's visible hand, to divert from the likelihood of a more serious crisis that would otherwise be inevitable if things are left entirely to be decided by the invisible hand of market forces.”

Comment

The statement is ironical because it inverts reality: markets work by visible prices – they couldn’t work without them, whereas politicians in association with invisible lobbysts, trade associations, pressure groups, secret party political processes, Official Secrets Acts, behind the scenes spin doctors, along the secret corridors of power, and the usual ‘fog’ of deceit.

Thee is no "invisible hand" of the market. There is  nothing for such a mystical entity to do.

Nor are the two activities of government and markets alternatives for each other.