SELF-CORRECTION, MARKET: The automatic process through which markets adjust from disequilibrium to equilibrium. Pointy-headed economists really like markets, even more than they like Englebert Humperdink. The reason is that markets have a built-in self correction mechanism. If a market is in equilibrium, it remains there until the cows come home. But if it's NOT in equilibrium, if it is in disequilibrium, it moves back. This means that no one (read this as government) needs to lord over markets, night and day, to ensure that they work. To reach an exchange that's mutually agreeable to both buyers and sellers, the buyers and sellers just need to be left alone (that is. laissez faire).
