Ep. 40: Return to the Teeter-Totter - Comments on the Price System

A listener wrote in to ask about whether the analogy (Ep. 37) about price being the fulcrum between buyers and sellers in the economy has different implications when the buyers are competing on different terms. What if one guy buys all the butter? This would make the Inflation Guy sad, because he loves butter - but more deeply, the answer to the question bears on what the function of the price system is, and when it can be said to be "not working."