On Sep 16, 12:56 pm, Ed earthlink.net> wrote:

If corruption is rampant then you don't have a free market.

However corruption is not much of a problem when the state has
relatively little power over the economy to begin with - which of
course it shouldn't. Corruption is a problem when the state can
determine which companies can operate, who can and can't start
businesses, whor does or doesnt get permits, etc. etc. This in fact is
a serious problem in many "third world" countries which is why they
mostly stay mired in poverty. It's also a problem in newly-freed
countries (countries that formerly were enslaved by communism) and
which don't have much of a prior history and tradition of common or
busines law and must now, almost from scratch, develop one, eg. Russia
and China, both of which have serious corruption problems. They both
however have magnified the problem by maintaining very large state
presence in the economy, in ownership, in regulation, in subsidies for
favored companies, etc. etc.

Fred Weiss