I think one thing people often miss about markets is that they tend to allocate resources efficiently ... over time. Sometimes over lots of time! As someone recently reminded us all, the market can stay irrational longer than an individual can stay solvent.

There are definitely things markets don't allocate efficiently - but those are "public goods," and they rarely look like infant mortality.

Along these lines, I'd love to hear what you make of John Robb's argument that the concentration of wealth and influence in the hands of Goldman Sachs and their ilk amounts to a shift to central planning, with the predictably disastrous consequences.