by Ryan McMaken
Mises.org
Mark Spitznagel, a hedge fund manager known for employing Austrian economics in his investment strategies, recently noted in an interview with The Financial Times that central bank policy have destroyed the value of markets: “Markets don’t have a purpose any more — they just reflect whatever central planners want them to.”
Given Spitznagel’s Austrian background, it’s likely the Spitznagel understands well how one of the market’s most essential services is found in the pricing mechanism. Without allowing free movement in prices, there’s no way of knowing what anything is actually worth. The distorted price signals lead to malinvestments.
In an environment of relentless manipulation of the money supply, markets cannot accurately price good and services, and without relatively stable and predictable interest-rate and money-supply policies from central banks, we’re only left guessing what asset prices actually are. In turn, this then permeates outward to the entire economy.