Free Market Principles

Kathy G posts on the Supreme Court's legalization of minimum price setting by manufacturers. I particularly enjoyed this bit—

Economists associated with Chicago school argued that price-fixing can promote the free market, since "minimum pricing strategies" would

prevent no-frills discounters from getting a "free ride" from marketing efforts of rival retailers that charged higher prices to spend more money on promotion

—said "free ride" sometimes going by the name "competition." Which, like any aspect of real free markets, is only desirable in the eyes of Chicago types when big corporations want it to be.