The Market is Always Free and Fully Employed

My latest column is now available at EVC. It begins:

Those who adhere to the philosophy of liberty (libertarians, voluntaryists, etc.) are quick to point out that neither the United States nor most places on earth have a free market economy. This is true if we ignore an important qualification for what constitutes a free market. Rothbard defined the (free) market as, "a summary term for an array of exchanges that take place in society. Each exchange is undertaken as a voluntary agreement between two people or between groups of people represented by agents." Thus we can make the argument that the market is always free, and concurrently, always fully employed.