You are the type of person who doesn't really care to spend a lot of time shopping, but then again, you don't really care to spend a lot of time doing much of anything. Family and friends often forget your birthday, your telephone number, your address, and whether or not you actually exist. Today, you are likely to spend a great deal of time at an auction seeking to buy either a large green chalkboard shaped like the state of Maine or a replacement battery for your pocket calculator. Be on the lookout for celebrities who speak directly to you through your television. You should consider shopping at stores or businesses beginning with the letter Y, but do not buy any products with a serial number or product code containing the number 932520. Your preferred shopping venue is discount super centers. Your special symbol is the period (.).

As a Beige Mundortle, you are somewhat dull, somewhat boring, somewhat lusterless. You don't particularly care and you don't really care that you don't care. You know that you have a somewhat drab, lackluster life, and that's just fine with you. You shop when you need to, buy what you have to, and get on with your life. It's just another day, another expenditure. You don't really care to spend a lot of time shopping, but you don't really care to spend a lot of time doing much of anything. Life goes on. So what? Who cares?

Imperfections in the exchange process between buyers and sellers that prevent markets from efficiently allocating scarce resources. Market failures come in four varieties -- public goods, market control, externalities, and imperfect information. Market efficiency is achieved if the value of goods produced is equal to the value of foregone production. Markets fail when this efficiency condition is not achieved. Such failures can only be corrected by government intervention.

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Mona Mallard Duct Tape Industries, the world's a leading producer of duct tape (that all-purpose, omni-present, shiny gray tape), is located right here in Shady Valley. Perhaps you've heard that they recently developed a new-fangled form of duct tape that's certain to revolutionize duct tape as we know it. This revolutionary development has, however, created a "situation" that we, pedestrian explorers of the economy, should consider. Mona Mallard's new duct tape uses "quagliminium," a relatively limited mineral found only in the quaint and courteous Republic of Northwest Queoldiola. Prior to this duct tape development, quagliminium had only one use, as lubricant for OmniStraight shoestring straighteners. The Northwest Queoldiolan supplies were sufficient to lubricate shoestring straighteners well into the year 3000. As a duct tape input, though, quagliminium deposits will be exhausted in a scant 50 years. Should we, could we, allow Mona Mallard to exhaust the supply of quagliminium? If they do, how will future generations lubricate their shoestring straighteners? Should we call for a moratorium on quagliminium use?
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