TANSTAAFL: A rather cumbersome and usually hard to remember acronym for the expression "There ain't no such thing as a free lunch. This is a favorite saving of many economists because it highlights, albeit in a grammatically questionable manner, the fundamental problem of scarcity. The phrase serves to emphasize that seemingly "free" lunches are not really free. While they might be free to the customer, someone must pay, that is, incur an opportunity cost of foregone production. The lunch eaten by one person cannot be eaten by another.

     See also | free lunch | scarcity | opportunity cost | scarce resource | scarce good |

TANSTAAFL, AmosWEB GLOSS*arama, http://www.AmosWEB.com, AmosWEB LLC, 2000-2026. [Accessed: June 15, 2026].

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The price that exists when a market is clear of shortage and surplus, or is in equilibrium. Market-clearing price is a common, non-technical term for equilibrium price. In a market graph, the market-clearing price is found at the intersection of the demand curve and the supply curve.

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Today, you are likely to spend a great deal of time wandering around the shopping mall hoping to buy either a T-shirt commemorating Thor Heyerdahl's Pacific crossing aboard the Kon-Tiki or a wall poster commemorating the 2000 Olympics. Be on the lookout for telephone calls from former employers.
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