There is a futures market.
John
>>Alan wrote on Fri, 10 Apr:
>>
>>> > When you walk into the shop and see the cauliflowers on sale for $1 you
>>> > don't know whether the store owner has set the price of $1 artificially
>>> > high with the expectation that the bargaining process will drive the
>price
>>> > down. In other words, you don't know whether s/he expects to sell the
>>> > cauliflower for $1 , $0.50, $0.25 or anywhere in between.
>>> Sure. which only tells us that the price changes constantly. Which is why
>>> when recording any price we have to specify it as the price of a definite
>>> moment in time. If the cauliflower is priced at $1 at 10am, then that's its
>>> price at that time. If it sinks to $0.40 by 4pm, then that's its price at
>>> that time.
>>
>>No, I think it tells us something more. It tells us that the price listed
>>for many commodities may be purposely inflated since the seller expects to
>>decrease the price in the sales process. In other words, the so-called
>>"list price" may be, and often is, a fictitious price that the seller has
>>no intention of selling the commodity for. Yet, if at a single moment in
>>time we added-up all of the prices for commodities in the manner you
>>suggested in your post on Wednesday, we would also have this fictitious
>>component that would inflate the aggregate price level.
>>
>>How can we get around this? Only by adding prices ex post. Then we _know_
>>what market prices were.
>>
>>> If it's sold for $0.30, then that is its price at the time of sale. >
>>> This is exactly the way that, for example, commodity prices are recorded in
>>> the commodity exchanges. That's what ticker tapes are for, except now they
>>> do it with screens. At any time, check the screen, and you see a list of
>>> prices. These are the prices of that moment.
>>>
>>
>>Right. But my point is that the listed prices are different from the
>>market prices.
>>
>>In solidarity, Jerry
>>
>>
>>
>