D41 - Market Structure, Pricing, and Design: Perfect CompetitionReturn

The aim of the article is to explore how the results of the U. S. subprime mortgage crisis influenced economic policy of governments in highly developed countries. It analyses consequences of a state intervention especially for government budgets and a rise of government debts. Then the article discusses the point of view of the Austrian school. Austrian economists argue a state is not an economic subject and its fiscal policy is very dangerous for effective allocation of the available resources of production's factors. They advocate a society with a small government and liberal economic policy. The author believes that Austrian approach to economic problems is more realistic and more pertinent than the approach of those, who demand more government intervention.

It is generally established that the concept of monopoly refers to an existence of a single company operating on the relevant market. This interpretation, though commonly accepted and echoed by all textbooks, is incorrect. The fact of being a single supplier is not essential in forming the concept of monopoly. The essential feature of monopoly is not the fact of a single company as such but the fact of the government physical force (i.e. law) mandating the privilege of exclusivity and keeping potential competitors out of an industry. But the defect in traditional conception of monopoly had to wait - until economists invented the theory of perfect competition - before it could lead to the routine attacks against the very nature of business through the government anti-trust legislation. The concept of monopoly must be redefined and reconstructed and the vitally important distinction between economic power of business and political power of government must be recognized.