Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!lll-ncis!helios.ee.lbl.gov!nosc!ucsd!rutgers!apple!desnoyer
From: desnoyer@Apple.COM (Peter Desnoyers)
Newsgroups: comp.misc
Subject: Re: Dram Prices...
Message-ID: <23910@apple.Apple.COM>
Date: 13 Jan 89 18:16:26 GMT
References: <18814@agate.BERKELEY.EDU> <6175@ecsvax.uncecs.edu> <1875@egvideo.uucp>
Organization: Apple Computer Inc, Cupertino, CA
Lines: 21

In article <1875@egvideo.uucp> gws@egvideo.UUCP (Geoff Scully) writes:
>
>... dumping (ie government subsidization to lower
>export prices) [is a] perfectly rotten intervention
>force and has nothing to do with "natural" market forces.

Dumping has nothing to do with government subsidization. It is a
perfectly natural result of an imperfect market - i.e. one where the
number of companies < infinity and per-company market share > 0. A
farmer cannot "dump" grain on the commodity market - he would go out
of business long before other farmers would notice any lowered demand.
Similarly, in any perfect competitive market (one where the diffy q.s
for demand/price can be proven to reach equilibrium) dumping cannot exist.

Since it is obvious by inspection that dumping can exist in certain
markets (to give a blatant example, look at how Bell drove many early
telcos out of business) the response should be to recognize that these
markets are imperfect, and look for realistic solutions rather than
re-iterating the same tired neo-classical dogma.

				Peter Desnoyers