Caue comments on Three Parables of Microeconomics - Less Wrong

25 Post author: jimrandomh 09 May 2014 06:18PM

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Comment author: Caue 14 May 2014 07:42:11PM 2 points [-]

Are they really not communicating, though? They seem to be signalling to each other their willingness to cooperate in the prisoner's dilemma.

I'd be very surprised if judges and regulators failed to classify this as a cartel.

Comment author: Nornagest 14 May 2014 07:44:07PM 11 points [-]

They're communicating in an information-theoretic sense, but probably not in a legal sense.

Comment author: EternalStargazer 28 May 2014 08:07:56PM 1 point [-]

If something as simple as this can be considered a cartel, then the entire free market system is a cartel.

The whole point is that companies can only communicate with each other in this manner, and not directly, because that would be collusion.

When I have time, I'll look up the specific legislation, though i suspect it varies by area.