8. Competition and Monopoly
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Description
Competition can mean rivalry or freedom. All firms must serve the preferences of consumers in order to exist. Monopoly has historically been an artificial privilege granted by the state.
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We have today a hybrid of two forms of banking – loan banking (non-inflationary) and deposit banking (inflationary if not 100% reserve holdings).  The cause of booms is the credit expansion by central banks that is not backed by pools of private savings.
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Causal-realist analysis allows imaginary constructs like the ERE- Evenly Rotating Economy- in order to isolate certain factors like interest.  There would be no profit or loss in the ERE, because those can only exist under conditions of uncertainty.
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